The Greater Good
by Emmy the Writer
Summary: Annie Cooper has sold her soul to Team Rocket, pulling herself out of purgatory in desolate western Kanto. With her life quickly spiraling out of control- wild parties, drugs, evil deeds and the spectre of her criminal father's Legacy- will she survive?
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone! I'm new to the pokémon section of the site, so please excuse any flaws in my canonical knowledge, or facts established by the fan community that I'm not aware of.

This fic will be rated T for now, but will most definitely rise to M in a few chapters. On another note, the timeline for this story is different from what you may be used to (You'll see soon enough) but it's roughly six or seven years before Ash began his journey. He will not feature, by the way.

I hope you'll enjoy this- reviews are welcome, concrit, 'omgplzupdate', and even flames. Please give this fic a chance. Oh, and somewhat arbitrarily but because it is established token on this site, I will state now that I own no facet of the pokémon franchise.

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The Greater Good

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Chapter One

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It didn't really matter that she'd left the Power Plant behind maybe an hour ago; it had completely slipped her mind that she'd even begun to wander. Kicking about glass and broken debris is only a game if you treat it so, and a much darker cloud had obscured the sun late that afternoon, draining the fun out of it. When the wind picked up, the area became sort of hollow- this area of Kanto generally was. Lavender Town wasn't as close as it looked, and you got the occasional trainer or hiker pottering around the Rock Tunnel, but for the most part a resident could spend their days in utter loneliness.

Monday was upon them again- another Monday, same as the rest. She remembered that Jared had gone to the Mart for some milk on a Monday. He'd never come back. That was the sort of place this was, near the old Power Plant; purgatory for the listless.

A flock of spearow shrieked overhead, sustaining their strained flight enough to clear a more dangerous stretch of rocks, no doubt on their way to the plant to sit on the power lines. Annie herself didn't own any pokémon, nor did she particularly want to. In fact, and by simple observation alone it could be ascertained, Annie wanted nothing in particular either. She was gliding through her teenage years, mumbling into lonesome sunsets by the sea with angry rocks clutched in her hands, skipping them out to their watery graves. They never went far.

Something caught her eye across the strange tundra. The tendrils of a small cooking fire reached meekly for the sky from faraway. Some ugly thought reminded her that open fires were illegal on the moor, but boredom quelled it swiftly. Annie headed towards the sign of life with fervour she hadn't known she possessed, like a moth to a flame. As she approached, she found three young men and a girl seated cross-legged, stripped down to their thermals (the cold up here could be quite deadly to those not accustomed to it), talking amiably with each other and nursing a flask of some alcohol between them.

"Oi!" One of them caught sight of Annie across the moor. "Oi, oi!"

The others turned to see what had caught his attention. "Hey!" the girl shouted, grinning big and showing immaculate teeth, even from far away. "Hey, come over here!"

Annie hesitated, but began walking after a few seconds. It was the way home, anyway, so she wasn't going out of her way to meet these people. There were sometimes humans out on the plains, but pokémon usually wouldn't go near them. It was folklore that battery acid waste from the power plant had leaked into the soil long ago in the accident that caused it to become abandoned.

"Hullo." She said, somewhat timidly as she approached. The girl has stood up, revealing a thick, lightly muscled physique under grey thermals. Annie envied people that just oozed confidence in the way that his girl did.

"You live here, yeh?" She asked as she thrust out a hand in greeting, dirty hair falling into her eyes. "I've been about awhile, seen you in the village. Don't mean us no trouble, yeh?"

"No, I don't." She agreed, taking the proffered hand gingerly, cringing at the calluses and the crumbling coat of mud. "What're you doing here, anyway?"

She shrugged, the kind of shrug that is a half-answer and a lie. "Oh, we're just around. You know, for a bit, yeh?"

She had a rough, city accent. Annie nodded. "All right. Must be going, I suppose."

"Nah!" The boy who'd shouted 'oi' dismissed the thought so strongly that in that instant she forgot it had ever occurred to her. "Fire has five places 'round it, if Jordan moves his arse."

Jordan, identified as the blonde and slightly stiffer of them, dutifully shuffled towards the third boy, who, in giddy delight at the ownership of the alcohol, was gazing at the grey, overcast sky merrily. Annie sat. What else had she to do? Well, there was laundry. And dinner. And then, she supposed… something.

The bottle was passed to the loud lad, who handed it to her with a kind smile. "This place is shit, you know."

Annie nodded, a slight scowl tempered by the obvious truth. It was a useless part of Kanto, refusing to die but also never prospering. With some sort of defiance, she took a loud swig of what turned out to be pecha rum, wincing as it burned her throat. It was cheap stuff, for appropriately cheap company. "I guess so."

"So." The girl butted back in from where she was poking the fire. "Got any pokémon?"

"No."

"Want one?"

"No."

Annie wondered why she looked so surprised.

"Do you want… a job?"

"…'Suppose."

"Oh, shit me a sandshrew, Kaylee, listen to her." The loud boy exclaimed, turning to Annie. "Lazy as a snorlax, you are, no 'ffence."

Annie was offended. "Pardon?"

He stretched and yawned, showing her a tattoo of a gyarados curled around the letter R on the right side of his stomach, poking out of his boxers. She was suddenly very aware of the dubious probity of her company, quite out of her comfort zone.

"Well, you're for want of trying, innit? Or someway like that. We've been here for, what, three days, and we're already bored as kakunas. I imagine you're, like, sixteen? Abouts? You must be bored off your pants."

"It's not that bad," she insisted, but her heart wasn't in it. "A little desolate, but we get by. I think it's foolish to go off, rambling around the country, never sure what could happen to you."

"What, trainers?" Kaylee snorted, finishing some drink. "Easy targets, trainers are."

"Here, here!" the drunken boy said suddenly, and all four of them looked proudly at a satchel that was sitting in his lap. He realised they were there and enthusiastically emptied it out, sending a myriad of pokéballs rolling onto the grass.

"Fourteen, not including ours." He slurred, hands touching the balls at his belt in reassurance, where two red and white spheres were held tightly. "How many d'you have?"

"None, she already said, Dean." Kaylee snapped.

"Why do you have so many?" Annie asked, picking one up and feeling the weight- definitely full. If these didn't belong to the teens, whose were they?

"Took 'em, didn't we?" said Dean, picking three up and beginning to shakily juggle them. "Skills."

He dropped one and the others snorted. The button connected with a hard patch of ground and by chance, it popped open, a short burst of red light solidifying into a large, angry nidoran.

"Shit." The loud boy, the one with the tattoo, said, but calm as anything, he whipped a ball from his belt, enlarged it and called forth a growlithe. It had a dull coat littered with patched of backbrushed hair, and looked pretty beat up. Annie didn't know much about pokémon health, but even she could tell that this one needed a nurse pretty bad. "Growlithe, attack!"

At the command, the pokémon flitted across the fire, launching itself at the confused nidoran. Sharp claws extended, it caught the poor thing in the face, sending the two of the sprawling backwards, leaving semi-deep lines of pain. Kaylee picked an empty pokéball from nowhere and readied herself, although the growlithe continued to scrap with the nidoran. With some aggrieved cries and squeals that travelled far across the moor, the nidoran gave up and consented to be pummelled, when it was quickly captured again my Kaylee's waiting ball.

The whole event was over in seconds, leaving Annie shell-shocked.

"Dean, don't play with the loot."

"Aight." He acquiesced, albeit half-heartedly. "I told you that nido was trouble. That kid was a piece of work."

"God, I know! Cap-backwards, short-wearing bundles of egoism, those lads." Jordan spoke suddenly, looking agitated.

They all agreed that the owner of the nidoran had been annoying. Annie found herself uneasy. However it had been taken, it had not been a happy or mutually beneficial exchange.

"Look at her, like she'd seen a haunter!" the drunk boy, Dean, cackled. Kaylee saw Annie's face and cooed, putting the pokéball away and picking her way over their shrub-layer of belongings.

"Aw, honey." She gave Annie what was more of a squeeze than a hug, a bizarre thing to give to someone she barely knew. "Right, I have a plan."

"Does it involve food? I got me some serious munchies."

"Don't smoke so much shit then." She retorted, fixing tattoo-boy with a withering stare. "My plan is better."

Jordan raised a barely-visible eyebrow. "Your plans are so famous for going marvellously, yeh?"

"Shut up. Anyways, I think we should get Boring here a pokémon."

"…Why?"

"…Just, 'cause."

"Waste of time, Kay."

She scowled at him. "And sitting here in some god-forsaken marsh isn't?"

"Not the point. We shouldn't just wait around here. There's nothing to get any more, we got all of it, didn't we? Pigs will start turning up, longer we stay."

"No polies 'round here, Raf."

He shrugged and flopped back onto the ground, collecting the pokéballs in, before setting it down and sighing. "All right, I suppose. But if you get it the shit for this, my name stays out of it."

"As always."

Annie was not sure whether she liked how this was panning out.

Of course, she'd met other people before, other people her age. But these were different. To begin with, they were from the city, which made them dangerous. And then she had to consider the stolen pokémon… it was not a good idea to mix with them, and yet she found herself with a small, guilty excitement. Perhaps it was fine to be whisked along by their strong winds for once. Perhaps. Just perhaps.

Kaylee hooked her arm in Annie's in that way that girls often do, leading her away from the fire. A rapidly descending mist of twilight was upon them, with the horizon a fine line of offensive pink. They headed north, for the Rock Tunnel, skirting around the power plant, taking swigs of rum as they did so. Kaylee did look at the plant curiously, and Raf even dashed inside for a tense couple of minutes, only to return with a fat, newly filled pokéball and a grin. They'd left Jordan and Dean with the fire.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Annie asked, her voice lost in a gust of wind. In response, her companion pulled her faster up a small slope. They appeared to know the route well enough, and the Rock Tunnel grew in prominence to the northwest. It was quite a trek, and although Annie considered herself relatively fit, Kaylee and Raf didn't break their pace. They'd occasionally chat indecipherable anecdotes relating to things she didn't understand, mostly about incidents that had occurred recently. None of them sounded particularly charitable, but Annie decided she didn't have the courage to go against any of it. Or maybe it wasn't that- and this was an uncomfortable thought in itself- and she was enjoying it. _That _didn't sit well, so she dusted it under her mental carpet.

"Hey," Kaylee snapped her fingers and Annie, mortified, awoke from her reverie. "Pay attention, you, yeh?"

"Sorry." She didn't know why she was apologising. "I just… what are you really doing here?"

"Passing through." Raf interjected quickly, sharing a glance with his friend. "On our way to Cerulean City, innit?"

"There are easier ways to get to Cerulean City." Annie argued. "Route eight, skirt around Saffron City and up Route Five?"

"We're doing a loop." He replied. "None of your business 'neways."

"Chill, Raffy." Kaylee drawled back at him with a meaningful look. "You are such a worry-wuss."

"I have reason to worry. If shit hits the fan, I'm the one who takes the flak."

"She's just a kid. You're not going to mention us to anyone, yeh?"

Annie wouldn't have either way. She wasn't community-conscious, and there wasn't really any community to be conscious of up here. "Of course not."

"See? S'fine."

He eyed Annie incredulously, but nevertheless stopped his badgering, produced a packet of cigarettes from beside his pokéballs on his belt and lit up, eyes glassy, passing one to Kaylee as an afterthought. She wondered what sort of person he was, really. Who, in fact, were they all? She'd not have been so worried, had they not carried a strange magnetism with them, some indecipherable pull behind their eyes, like a fishing lure.

From a rocky outcropping emerged the ragged entrance to the Rock Tunnel, ten feet high and somehow darkening the air around it. In Annie's opinion, it looked like the gaping maw of some horrible beast. The three of them stood looking at it for a while, before Kaylee took a ball from her belt, unleashing a magnemite.

"Right." She said, stepping into the gloom. "Magnemite, Flash!"

With a small spark, the small floating magnet pokémon began to give out harsh white light that outlined the heavy cracks and crevasses in the walls. They stepped in, Raf stubbing out his cigarette before stooping to follow the two girls, muttering darkly to himself, something about hating caves.

"Why d'we have to catch something in here again?" he complained, glancing at the unfathomable ceiling dubiously. "Wouldn't a bellsprout do?"

Kaylee snorted. "Not unless we want her to be laughed at."

"I'll laugh at her anyway."

"You make yourself sound so attractive, don't you?" she sighed and looked at Annie. "Mostly ignore Rafael. Oh, shit… sorry, what was your name?"

"You never asked."

"Oh."

"It's Annie." She added.

"I get how weird this is," Kaylee said quietly as they walked deeper into the cave, letting Rafael wander behind them. He'd let his growlithe out for a bit, letting it stretch its legs after the fight with the nidoran. Perhaps it was just the fact that he had been drinking and smoking, but Raf seemed a restless person, never quite content with what was in front of him, always looking around the next corner.

Annie shrugged in response. She wasn't comfortable with the company, but neither was she particularly upset by it. Owning a pokémon was not high on her list of aspirations, though realistically that list wasn't very long. "It's not too bad. At least you're not kidnappers."

The irony was lost on Raf.

"Anyway, let's find something for you." Kaylee suggested quickly, directing magnemite to dim its glow a bit as to not discourage any wild pokémon. A muted flapping came from around a sharp bend, and the three of them ducked against the cave wall, Kaylee pressing a pokéball into Annie's hand. "Have a go yourself." She whispered.

A loud cry echoed around, loud on Annie's ears. She felt the smooth surface of the ball in her hand and its strange weight, fingers tightening around it. This was her chance to change, to get out of Kanto's proverbial Valley of Ashes. A desire she'd never possessed before erupted behind her eyes and in that moment Annie changed inside herself. There was a new resolve, a sort of pulsing anxiety to _live_ beneath her skin, and she recognised and empathised with Raf's restlessness.

In a rush, the high-flying crowd of zubat launched themselves at the group, fangs bared and screeching.

"Go!" Annie shouted with fervour, throwing the ball into the air. From within came a large, angry sandslash, growling under its breath and bursting to fight.

"Go on, command it!" Kaylee urged her.

"Uh, sandslash, fury swipe!" She yelled the first attack that came to her head.

It jumped up in the air into the wave of zubat, its razor-sharp claws slicing clean through their vulnerable bodies. Annie felt slightly sick as blood hit the walls and the dismembered bodies of the zubat fell to the floor. The sheer brutality and raw power of Kaylee's sandslash was terrifying.

Sandslash landed neatly on the floor, raising a cloud of dust. A single zubat remained- larger than the rest with its sharp teeth bared. With a ripple in the air, it sent out waves of pulsing sound, louder that human hearing could bear. In the nick of time, sandslash curled into a ball, but was battered with an unheard thud onto the wall. Unfurling, sandslash shrugged of the impact and lunged again, this time headbutting the zubat directly in its stomach. It plummeted towards the ground. Kaylee roughly took the empty pokéball belonging to sandslash out of Annie's hand and replaced it with a newer, smaller one that was much lighter.

"Don't stand there gawking, capture it!"

With a nervous jitter, Annie braced herself and threw the ball, meeting the falling zubat halfway. It disappeared in a flash of red light just as Kaylee withdrew her sandslash, the ball falling to the cave floor with a clack.

There was no question as to whether it was caught- it was half-dead either way. Annie numbly walked over, careful not to tread on the severed bodies of its dead compatriots, and picked up the sphere. It felt hot to the touch.

"Nicely done." Kaylee said, at which Raf nodded. "Still, you could have been a bit easier on those other zubat. We can capture them, even if they don't change hands for much, Raf has a habit to feed and points mean prizes."

"Points mean weed." Raf added sagely from where he was already walking out towards the entrance.

"Same thing." She said, minimizing her sandslash's ball and attaching it back to her belt. "So, how does it feel?"

Annie hesitated with her new pokémon in her hand. "…Odd."

"It'll become normal with time." Kaylee explained, linking her arm into Annie's and guiding her out of the cave, strolling jovially. "Anyway, let it rest for a bit, then you can pound the shit out of little kids who have something less powerful. Y'know, the cap-backwards lot that think they're hotter than charizard?"

"We kinda took all their pokémon already." Raf pointed out.

"Why would I want to hurt them?"

That was the wrong thing to ask.

"…Why wouldn't you?"

"Because…"

They fell silent as they left the cave.

Later on, after an awkward walk, they reunited with a spectacularly drunk Jordan and Dean, who were sat in their underpants by the fire laughing louder than the zubat had screeched. "Whoa! Jordan, looook!"

"I see stars!" Jordan was on his back looking at the sky. "Look, stars!"

They burst out laughing.

"You two, we gotta get going." Kaylee said, annoyed at their antics. "Ah, shit, you're three sheets to the wind. We're never gonna up pegs tonight."

"Chill, Kay. We got 'bags and ground mats."

"'Suppose."

They all looked at Annie. She felt prompted to speak. "It was nice to meet you all."

"Wish I could say the-"

"Shut up, Raf."

"He's only saying it 'cause he likes you."

"I doubt it." She replied, bowing herself out of the circle of light thrown onto the ground by the dwindling fire. "Uh, thanks for helping me, I guess."

"Yeh, see ya."

Annie walked away then, her back turned, feeling strange inside. What had just happened was so monumentally different from her normal life, so unnaturally bright and colourful in her dim home environment that she felt she'd never quite be the same. She arrived home, let herself in and set her pokéball on her bedside table, staring at it as moonlight reflected off its shiny surface.

It seemed more alive than she was.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

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A fist hits a door as a battering ram hits the reinforced gates of some long-ago castle. Importantly.

A curious Annie padded downstairs, rubbing her eyes free of sleep-dust, drawing her dressing gown closer to ward of the morning chill. Grasping for the key, she unlocked the front door from the inside and opened it, wincing as the morning air hit her face.

Kaylee was outside. She looked hung-over, despite having not much to drink last night. Wrapped up against the cold, she wore a black overcoat with a small, red 'R' emblazoned on the breast pocket and a flat cap over her still dirty hair. "Morning. Can I come in?"

"Uh, sure." Annie moved out of the way so she could enter. "What're you doing here?"

"Trying to cadge breakfast, at least." She joked, but her face was serious. "Nice place you have here."

"Thanks." Annie said, looking around. Her house was pretty normal, as houses go, and very tidy. This was more to do with the fact that very little happened to mess it up than any great effort on Annie or her mother's part. "Would you like some toast?"

"You're a star." Kaylee sat down at the kitchen table, taking off her cap. In the light, Annie saw that her hair was blonde-ish, dyed a rebellious pink but fading somewhat. "I came to ask you if you'd come with us."

"What?"

"I saw how you handled my sandslash. It's rare for somebody to have your force of… er, y'know, will and stuff."

"You really think so?" Annie asked, quite astonished, as she put two pieces of bread into the toasted and fiddled around for a knife. "Butter or jam?"

"Chocolate spread."

"We don't have any. Peanut butter?"

"Meh." Kaylee replied, but nodded. "Nothing substitutes for chocolate spread."

"I wouldn't know."

"Pssh. Anyway, yes, I kinda got the impression that you're not doing much with yourself. Thought you'd like to get out, maybe just needed a push."

Annie looked up the stairs to where her mother was sleeping, indicating that she had considerations. "I don't know if I could leave mum alone. She was devastated when dad left, and if I left too…"

"You can't stay here all your life. I had to ask, like, a hundred people before somebody knew where your house was or even who you were. I was lucky that your birth certificate was in the Lavender Town archives."

"The _private _archives?"

Kaylee gave her a withering look as the toast popped up. "The effort is what counts, yeh?"

"Oh, of course. I agree." Annie replied absentmindedly, trying to focus on spreading peanut butter evenly, something she'd never particularly excelled at.

"As I was saying, I don't think you should let your parents stop you doing shit."

"Stuff." Annie quickly corrected, conscious of her mother.

"Same meaning." The other shrugged. "Well, I can't make you do anything. Actually, I can, but it wouldn't reflect well on me."

"…Right." She placed the steaming toast in front of Kaylee, who salivated slightly before taking a bit bite. "I tell you, the only thing you miss on the road is home food. Y'know, the stuff you can't cook over a fire or eat from a wrapper."

"…You _can_ cook toast over the fire."

Kaylee paused from her feasting and glared at her, muttering some distorted insult through a mouthful of food.

"Where are the other three?"

"The boys?" she dismissed them with a half-hearted wave of her hand. "Hung-over as shit. We can catch up on them easy- they'll not even be up yet, probably."

"We?"

"You've already decided to come, yeh?"

"…"

"Good. Go pack."

Annie quirked an eyebrow. "I never said…"

"Go pack, softy, before I finish my toast."

Annie went upstairs, confused. She knew she wanted to go- knew she should, that she'd wither and die in this barren place if she didn't, but something was stopping her. She took a satchel from her closet and absentmindedly packed some basics- toothbrush, underwear, phone- and then with a strange glee, the pokéball containing her zubat. Changing into some versatile clothes and a coat, she looked around her room, feeling a little homesick already. She'd made the decision for herself, although it was a tenuous one. She didn't know Kaylee or the boys well at all- and they were of somewhat spurious probity. Not much news reached their isolated settlement, but the red 'R' had some unspoken significance that was lurking at the back of Annie's mind, something she'd heard long ago and had never lost grasp of.

Her mother's room was opposite, so she snuck through the door and looked around. It smelt musty, as though something inside had died long ago. Her mum was sprawled on the bed, snoring quietly with an empty bottle of wine on the floor beside her. There was little hope that she'd recover from Alec's abandonment, and if Annie went as well, she'd be following in the footsteps of her father. She wasn't sure how long mum could survive by herself, but what use was it trying to fix broken merchandise when it was already outdated?

The thought disturbed her.

"Mum?" she said quietly. "Mum, wake up."

"Hmm?" the drowsy woman replied, turning over. "Alec, is that you?"

"No, mum, it's Annie."

"Oh. Have you seen Alec anywhere? He's coming back soon."

Annie bit her lip with guilt. "I know. I'm going to go buy some milk for your breakfast at the Mart in Lavender Town. I'll be back later, okay?"

"Will you see Alec?"

"Maybe."

"Tell him I love him."

"I will, mum."

"I'll be waiting." Her mother said, yawning and rolling back over. "I'll be waiting."

Annie closed the door quietly, small tears leaking out of the corner of her eyes. She was leaving her mother to die in this house, in that room. She was doing what Jared had done, lied and left for a new life away from the crushing, forlorn atmosphere of the land.

Kaylee, who had finished washing up the plate and knife used to make her breakfast, stood looking through family photos, occasionally having to wipe dust off them. Her cap was back on, and she looked itching to get out of the memory-saturated house. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Well, grab as much food as you can. Fresh stuff, and some long-term items if you can. Oh, and toilet roll. _Lots _of toilet roll."

"Do I want to know?"

"No. C'mon." Annie quickly emptied the fridge and the cupboards, quickly nipping into the downstairs lavatory and taking all the looroll there was. Emerging into the hallway, she nodded to Kaylee and, as an afterthought, grabbed the spare key, tucking it into her pocket as they left the house, closing the door behind them.

On a fresh morning such as this, it was easy to forget details that needed remembering, such as the nature of Kaylee's group and the fact that she had left her mother alone and unstable. A light breeze splayed Annie's long brown hair out behind her, while a rising sun warmed the back of her neck. A sense of freedom bubbled up in her chest as she walked beside Kaylee, who seemed more at ease than the night before.

"Where are we going?" she asked as they crested a bluff overlooking the road into Lavender Town, which lay in the distance.

"Saffron first, we got us some jobs to do, but the journey is good and the city's got many sights to see. I'm guessing you 'ent never seen a city before?"

"Only Lavender."

"If that's a city, I'm a squirtle."

"Well…"

"Oi! Don't you start! I get enough shit from Raf and the lads."

"Is Raf your… boyfriend?"

Kaylee made a face. "Oh, hell no. I wouldn't go anywhere near Raf, I dunno where he's been."

"So you guys travel about together?"

"Not exactly." She said nervously, looking over her shoulder as if some invisible policeman was following them doggedly. "Listen, you're cool about us, right?"

"I suppose." Annie replied hesitantly, anticipating a catch.

Sucking in a big breath and starting with jolting agility down the hill, Kaylee began to speak. "Me and the lads are a part of a bigger organization that operates around Kanto and Johto. We're a business of sorts."

"You deal in stolen pokémon."

Kaylee tutted in a way so strong that Annie lost her footing on the issue. She didn't care for pokémon enough to be outraged, but wasn't yet quite so heartless as to condone cruelty of that level. "I had thought you'd worked it out."

"I had."

"Then why're you still here?"

It was a good question. Why was she? Annie had figured out last night that the group of them were up to no good, after Dean had shown their stolen pokémon. And now, regardless, she was walking beside Kaylee, her own life open ahead of her. In an ironic allusion to some famous poem, the road before of them diverged into two winding paths- one to Lavender Town, to the police station, to some semblance of justice. The other sharply split from its twin, sliding off to the right into a lightly wooded route- as Annie remembered, route 8. A rapidash was pulling a heavily laden cart of fresh fish, presumably from the Lavender fish market, along the route, snorting and straining. Kaylee spotted it too, and stood, waiting, cruel smile spreading like a cancer on her lips.

"I guess you're badder than you thought."

"Worse."

"Huh?"

"The right word is worse. Badder isn't a word." Annie said; unaware of why it even mattered.

"Why do I care?"

"You don't."

"Correct." Kaylee replied snidely, looking half-annoyed, half-amused. "Right, Softy, time to test your mettle."

She grabbed Annie under the arm and jolted her into action, a quick jog that would see them catch up with the cart. "What're you doing?"

"_We_," corrected Kaylee, "Are pikeing that rapidash."

"Why?"

"It's worth a lot of money. Evolved, good condition, could make me… perhaps $1000?"

They stopped. Annie, mouth hanging open, repeated the sum. "A thousand dollars?"

"Count 'em."

It was a lot of money. More than Annie had ever owned. For one pokémon? For one small act of villainy? That seemed easily justified, until she looked at the old man walking next to the cart, back hunched and a scraggly beard obscuring the lower half of his weather-beaten face. An old fisherman, just going about his business. He probably retired to Lavender for the sea air and the quite atmosphere, and his pokémon was likely his only companion. Could she do that to a person?

Kaylee's steely gaze said she would, whether she wanted to or not. The older girl rummaged in her backpack and took out an identical black cap to hers. "Here, chuck this on, make sure he can't get a good look at your face. And we'll have to find you a change of clothes at some point. Just follow my lead, yeh? Be ready with your 'bat."

Annie nodded; putting the cap hastily on her head, brim low so it shaded her eyes. She took the warm pokéball containing her recovered zubat from an easily accessible pocket of her bag and clenched it hard, conscious of what she was about to do- the proverbial road she was choosing to travel down. Her life had been culminating to this minute, this paltry second, this decision, and there was no turning back to retreat to her dying past. The only thing was now, the shifting, murky now of true humanity, not the sugarcoated television existence, not the computerized school day- something more, something _real_.

"At my signal, send zubat out and supersonic." They resumed running, veering off to the right to travel under the shade of the treeline separating Lavender Town from route eight. With panting courage and a shot of smoldering adrenaline, Annie followed the faster and fitter Kaylee, who had prepared an empty pokéball for capture. They slowed as they approached the road, concealed in the short, dark morning shadows, breathing heavily. Kaylee raised a hand with five open fingers and began counting down as the man came into better view, whistling quietly and checking his stock on a worn clipboard.

The fingers reached a fist and Kaylee gave a wave. Hoping she was doing it right, she clicked the button and the ball sprung open, and with a small flash of red light, her zubat appeared beside her, looking good as new.

"Zubat, supersonic on that man!" she whispered to it, knowing that its hearing was good- anywhere zubat lived, you were given a leaflet from the nearest pokémon centre through the door about not disturbing their daytime sleep with loud noises.

Zubat hesitated, unused to taking orders. "Do as I say!"

She felt bad for snapping at it, but wanted to impress Kaylee, and was convinced by this time that money was worth the despicable means. With a huff, zubat flapped its wings and rose above the treeline, making a swift loop before diving for the man, shrieking as it went. Annie and Kaylee, sensibly, had their hands over their ears, but the man, old and frail and unprepared, cried out in pain as the supersonic waves of sound shattered his eardrums. He fell, ears bleeding, beside the cart.

"Nidorino!" Kaylee summoned from behind, a massive, hulking pokémon charging out of thin air towards the startled rapidash, its horn spinning and its mouth frothing with rage. It tacked the horse-pokémon side-on, ripping its harness off and battering it onto the floor. Rapidash scrambled to get up, but Nidorino crushed it beneath its large feet, snarling. With a faint whinny, the flames on rapidash's mane began to rise and roar, sending Kaylee's burned pokémon reeling away.

"Zubat, leech life!" Annie commanded, feeling hot, dark blood pumping through her veins, setting her on fire. The delighted zubat swooped down, its large, protruding fangs outstretched and ready, latching onto the recovering rapidash's open neck, ripping two gushing holes of red in the soft white flesh. It was a strangely thrilling sight, the poor rapidash whimpering and falling, weaker and weaker.

"Call it off, I'm gunna cap it!"

"Zubat, return!"

Kaylee threw the pokéball, a strange one that was black with a red 'R' embossed onto its. Annie suspected it was from her 'organisation', whatever that may be. It burst open; sucking the rapidash in with a jolting black flash, then fell to the floor, still as the grave.

"Nice job." They high-fived while Kaylee jogged over and picked up the pokéball. "Let's get this off the road, yeh?"

Annie heaved as they pushed the cart of horridly pungent fish off the road and into the forest, resting a few minutes afterwards while Kaylee made a telephone call to the boys enquiring as to their whereabouts. The man laid beside it, knocked out cold by the supersonic blast, a loud bruise erupting on his naked temple where he'd hit the cart before fainting to the floor. Annie kept an eye on him, eyes hot with shifting currents of volcanic wind, fingertips taut and reaching as she tried to contain them. It was brilliant. It was all so brilliant, so new, so wicked, that she felt herself swept up into the floes.

"They've been twats and shortcutted through the forest. We'll meet 'em at our safehouse in Saffron."

"Safehouse?"

"A house that's safe."

"… You have a way with words, you know?"

Kaylee gave her a friendly two-finger salute and tucked her phone back into her belt, next to her three pokéballs. Sandslash and Nidorino- powerful, durable pokémon, well honed and trained. Vicious, too, from what she'd seen. And the magnemite, too, whatever purposes it may serve.

Day had broken properly by the time they were back on their route to Saffron City, and the wind had picked up, sending leaves skittering beside the duo. It was not quite winter, but a questionable autumn that seemed harsh despite its beauty. Annie compared it to Kaylee- she was not ugly; in fact, her magnetic personality had extended to her features, giving her an approachable look. But Annie'd seen her in combat- seen her with a monstrous look that belied a deep, unspoken anger that she held inside herself. It was best not to pry, though, when she barely knew the girl.

Route 8 opened up ahead of them- a broad route with a single-track road meandering around long grasses and trees that and broken out from the woods to the south. With a faraway grunt, a motorbike screeched around the corner, pursuing a white blur in front of them, pokémon running beside them. Raucous laughter echoed around the empty space. The blur turned out, as it resolved, to be a man with long, greasy black hair and a pair of spectacles perched precariously on his hooked nose. He took a peek back at his assailants and shook his head, tripping over an outcropping of rock and sprawling to the floor.

"Heh, scrawny shit c'aint run no further." They brought their bikes to a jarring stop and hopped off. There were three of them, big men with tattoos running up their arms like some slow-spreading poison. "Grab his stuff."

"Boss, witnesses."

The biggest, ugliest of them looked up to see Annie and Kaylee standing before them. "Oi! Scarper, kiddies!"

"I think not." Kaylee said under her breath, cracking her knuckles. "I know these guys. They talk big; don't have much to show for it. You know koffing?"

"Yes."

"Good. They got tonnes of 'em. I can batter 'em, but get your zubat to fan the fumes away, so we don't get smog'd, kay?"

Annie nodded, a now familiar feeling of control and power stirring inside her. They began a slow, purposeful walk towards the bikers, who scowled due to the fact that their usual bluster was not generating fear.

"Aww, wanna play with the big boys?" the leader chuckled, taking a pokéball from his belt, the stiff, gelled spikes of his ridiculous haircut blowing slightly to the side in the wind. "Koffing, smother the little shits!"

His friends followed suit, releasing quite a worrying number of koffing from their pokéballs. Their thick purple effluent smoke snaked its way around the forest, coiling around ankles and obscuring the bright sun above, creating a shifting, decisively advantageous battleground favouring the bikers, who had put down the visors on their helmets to block the fumes.

Annie coughed as two long tendrils of smoke wafted into her nostrils, the acrid fumes licking and acidic tang in her throat.

"Don't stand there like a snorlax, go!" Kaylee hissed. "Sandslash!"

"Zubat!"

With a growl, Kaylee's Sandslash lunged through the fog and into the soft, earthy ground, burrowing lightning-fast with its massive claws. Zubat, sensing somehow the problem, shot up into the cleaner air and extended its wings, whirring up a storm of air that pushed the smog towards the bikers.

"Koffing, batter 'em!" the leader yelled through his visor, and suddenly a wall of angry koffing were baring down on the two of them, mouths open showing grotesque wonky teeth at least two inches long, dripping violently purple acid. "Toxic!"

They all spewed at once, a rain of acid drenching Annie head to toe. With a rough jerk, Kaylee pulled her behind her already-tired Nidorino, who had just been released and was taking the brunt of the attack, heaving and wailing as the acid stung and sizzled on its not-quite thick enough coat. Annie heaved and threw up, crying out in pain, red, blotchy marks beginning to cover the exposed parts of her skin.

"Oi, Softy!" Kaylee barked, slapping her across the face. "Don't die yet!"

"Easier said then done, 'aint it sweetheart?" With a crunch of thick, hobnailed boots, the bikers and their koffing rounded Nidorino, thick grins on their stubbly faces. "You think we weren't knowin' you too, darlin'? After what your boys did to us a couple weeks ago…"

"Beaten by frikkin' kiddies!"

"Sons of bitches…"

The leader snapped his large, meaty fingers at his twittering underlings, shutting them up. "Any road, as I were sayin'… ye're not with your boys no more, just some dreg from near the power plant. We been trainin', ain't that right, lads?"

They murmured in accord, sounding like gorillas trying to hum the theme from _Titanic_.

"So now, we're gunna give you a dose of your own medicine."

"Grimer!" An unknown voice cried from behind. "Obliterate them!"

It was the weedy guy that they'd been chasing. His glasses were broken and he had a large graze covering his face, but he looked angry. A pool of writhing, slimy pokémon formed by his feet, reforming and morphing until it was at about chest height, purple, slimy and horribly ugly.

"The fuck you doin', rat? I told you to die already!"

"As far as I'm aware I don't take orders from Neanderthals."

He wasn't doing anything to endear himself to the big, scary bikers, to be honest.

"Would ya take orders from my _knuckles_?"

"… Possibly." The nerd backed away as the bikers advanced on him, hands outstretched and teeth bared like they themselves were thoughtless, primal pokémon. "Hey, do something!"

Annie realised that he was pointing through the wall of leather and grease to her and Kaylee. She tried to open her mouth, but found her skin was cracked and raw from the acid. She felt someone take her underneath the arms and pull her away slowly, and turned her head to see that a limping Kaylee, teeth clenched and jawline bulging dangerously was tugging her away from where the bikers were about to kill the nerd.

"Shit, shit, shit." Kaylee groaned, and Annie saw that the leg of her trousers was burned away and the skin was raw and blistered. "Sandslash, where the _fuck_ are you?"

"Wh…" Annie tried, but was given a deadly look.

"Shh, you. I'm saving our hides."

"Nngh!"

"Shut. Up. Damn, you're heavier than you look."

There was a crunch and a loud thud from behind them. Annie chanced a look and saw fists hit flesh as they battered the prostrate body of the probably dead nerd. Poor guy. Looked to be in his early twenties, maybe four years older than Kaylee at most. Dead as Dickens' proverbial doornail.

"Have I said shit already?" Annie nodded. "Think you can move by yourself?"

"N."

"Bollocks." Kaylee winced as one of the bikers looked over his shoulder to see them escaping. "Oh, shit me a starmie."

"Ha! Thought you could escape?" the leader boomed, stepping on the nerd's dead body to get over, snapping some more ribs in the process. "Koffing, tackle!"

"Nidorino, reflect!"

The tired pokémon threw up a reflective shield, just holding the onslaught of koffing that rammed into it before shattering and disappearing into nothingness, leaving Nidorino panting and shuddering with the effort.

"Zubat, wing attack!" Kaylee shouted, acting in place of Annie. Zubat, who'd made a circle around the battlefield and back, dove in, guns blazing, whipping up a jarring wind with its small wings. The koffing, who had been collecting for their final blow, were scattered in the air and skidded back to ground, a couple cracking and breaking with the impact, useless and out of order.

"C'mon, just a couple seconds…" Kaylee growled as the ground began to rumble beneath them. "C'mon!"

Sandslash erupted through the ground into the crowd of koffing, claws wildly flailing, but the floating pokémon were too quick and just managed to get out of the way.

From the hole that Sandslash had dug came something else.

"Now _this_ is an entrance!" Came a suspiciously familiar voice as a figure rose high in the air. As he rose above the omnipresent smog, familiar cocky features were revealed. Tousled black hair, shaved short at the sides, shading dark eyes and a big grin. There was no mistaking Raf as he rose on the head of a truly massive gyarados, dressed in the same dark uniform as Kaylee had on under her coat, the forbidding red 'R' emblazoned wild on his chest.

"Gyarados, _dragon rage_!" he roared in time with his massive pokémon. A tumultuous crash echoed around the whole route as gyarados lunged forwards, tendrils of fire roiling from its mouth, nostrils flared and maw open wide and gaping with rage. It whipped around, its long body circling the crowd of koffing and crushing them together as they writhed and moaned. The bikers, eyes wide under their weighty brows, looked at each other uncertainly before fumbling for their pokéballs, only to have found them gone.

"Wher'm my pokéballs?"

"Shit, what the-"

With a chuckle, another of the boys jumped down from where a magneton was floating, brandishing a net full of the bikers' balls. "Watch your 'balls, gents, if you'll pardon the saying." Dean said with a wink. "Sir Jordoc de Loser, would you finish for us?"

"Not if you call me that." Jordan hopped out of the hole made by Sandslash's digging, looking irate with his sandy hair sticking out of the bottom of his uniform black cap. "But yes, I think I can take out the trash."

"Trash!" the lead biker snarled, trying to stay strong even though his koffing were being crushed. "We ain't trash! Team Rocket dogsbodies like _you_ lot are!"

"Pff." Jordan flicked his hair vainly and cocked an eyebrow. "Machoke."

The massive, hulking pokémon appeared with a tremor, red eyes set on the bikers. "All ready here, Jordoc!" Raf affirmed, and the two of them shared a look before they both shouted out:

"Gyarados!"

"Machoke!"

"**Execute!**"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

* * *

There had not been many times in Annie's life in which she had been badly hurt- once, when she was younger, she'd fallen down a cliff and broken a rib, and then a little later she'd caught her fingers in a sliding door at the Lavender mart, but nothing quite compared to how she felt now. Had this happened forty years ago- in her mum's time, she'd have been dead, but the technological boom ushered in by Silph Co. had advanced medical care for both pokémon and humans. That was how she found herself in Saffron City General Hospital three days later.

It seemed a terribly odd existence, being a human doctor in a society dominated by care of pokémon. The hospital was small in relation to the pokémon centre next door, understaffed, frantic and fleeting doctors meandering from one ward to the next.

Kaylee was in civvies, sitting on a cushy chair next to Annie's bed reading a newspaper. "Hey, check this out. 'Discovered yesterday were the bodies of six men- five of which were recognised as members of the Route 8 Koffer Biker gang. The other was one was Thomas Johnson, a Silph Co. intern. It is thought that the bikers murdered Mr. Johnson, and they themselves were victim to a very powerful trainer who took it upon themselves to avenge his death. Anyone with details should contact Saffron Police Dept.'"

"I like the very powerful trainer bit." Annie chuckled, looking at zubat's pokéball on her bedside table. "Though I have to say, the boys have pretty scary pokémon. Gyarados… machoke… makes zubat look a bit fragile."

"Pssh. Don't get your knickers in a twist, the boys may seem big but it's fifty percent bluster, forty percent luck and twenty percent skill."

"That adds up to a hundred and ten percent, Kaylee."

"… I could disconnect your painkiller drip _right now_…"

Annie stuck her tongue out. When you get showered with acid with someone, your level of friendship tends to show a severe upward trend. Such was true of her and Kaylee. "Thanks. For not leaving me to die."

"It was nothing. Besides, you're an investment, and I'd be a crap banker if I didn't protect my investments."

"You're not a banker."

"It was a metaphor, idiot." Kaylee replied, turning over to the sports pages. "Ooh, this reminds me. I got a place to take you after you recover."

"Where?"

"Surprise."

"Tell me!"

"Nope. Wait and see. Besides, I can't take you anywhere until they spray all your skin back on."

That was a problem. Annie's severely corroded skin was having to be sprayed back on, layer by layer, using new technology developed by the aforementioned Silph Co. Though it was miraculous in itself, it had to be at regular intervals over a couple of days to make sure the consistency was the same all the way over. She didn't want a massively lumpy nose of something horrendous like that.

"Kaylee… what was it that the biker said about… Team Rocket?" she asked tentatively, turning to meet the intermediate blue of her new friend's eyes. For a brief moment, some automated guard flashed across them, but them subsided, giving way to some strange murky melting pot of feelings.

"I'll tell you… later, yeh?"

"Ok."

A balding doctor approached the bed at a rushed shuffle, pushing his spectacles further up his nose. "Miss Cooper?"

"Doctor."

"Your blood test results have come back and I'm pleased to say that all of the poison has passed out of your system. We can prescribe you some immunoboosters to help your body recover and you'll be out of here tomorrow afternoon."

"Brilliant." She said, itching to get out of bed. "Thanks so much."

He left. "You're too nice." Kaylee complained, resting her head on the side of the raised bed. "I'm hungry. Want anything?"

"Uh, yeh, whatever."

She came back with fish and chips.

"Oh, you know how to treat a girl, Kaylee." Annie accepted a portion, salivating. Lavender used to have a fish 'n chip shop, but it closed down when Annie was a young girl and she hadn't had proper, old-style food from one since. As she was cramming food down, a tiny golbat flapped up onto the open windowsill, a small rolled-up note attached to its leg. Kaylee spotted it and got up reluctantly.

"I know this golbat." She explained, taking the note off. "It's Proton's."

"Pro-whom?"

"Proton. He's an executive and he's _not happy_."

"Why?"

"Err, you." Kaylee scratched her head. "Damn, I wanna shower. Hurry up and recover so we can get back to HQ." then she looked at the note. "…Or maybe, take a while. A long while."

"Is he really that bad?"

"Oh, hells yeah."

They finished the food in silence, listening to the news blaring out of the television at the far end of the ward. The important stories had flooded through earlier, replaced by the dribble of missing pokémon, a school opening and traffic jams around the city because of pipe-works. The reporter's voice was smooth and feminine, like the one that told you the floors in lifts and wished you farewell when you exited automatic doors. Was it the same woman? Annie realised that she didn't honestly care.

Following that thought was something darker. Over the last couple of days, Annie had realised how little she truly cared about, and it scared her. As somebody with plenty of time for inflection, although not prone to it, she should have spotted it sooner, all those days spent pottering around the empty power plant, with shafts of dying golden light reaching through the broken windows to comfort her. A lonely existence for forgotten spirits, always the observers.

Now she'd found something she could not care about and still excel at: pokémon theft. She was in murky moral waters, she knew, but those cares were far away. When she'd taken that rapidash- when she'd taken command of zubat, even when she'd been doused with acid, there was a spark of life that she'd left in the power plant that had somehow returned to her. She felt like her chest was bursting- it could be the immunoboosters, yes, but there must be something else, a new energy that was pooling in her fingertips and swirling beneath her skin. Something new was coming, and although Annie didn't know exactly the nature of it, she wasn't interested for now.

"Annie?"

Kaylee was shaking her lightly on the arm when she awoke groggily the next morning. Meagre light forced its way past the heavy glass window, and the sun was low in the sky, not yet melting autumn's chill. "Mmn?"

"We're leaving."

"Now?" she asked, surprised. The clock on the wall showed 6:43a.m, which in Annie's book was not happy wake-up funtime. She yawned profusely and sat up, wiping grit out of her eyes.

"Nice view." Kaylee complained. "And yes, now. I pride myself on punctuality when the boys would rather skive off and mooch around town terrorizing commuters."

"…This Proton is really that bad?"

"Yes. Get dressed."

"In what?" All her clothes had been irrevocably damaged by Koffing's acid and disposed of in a yellow bin with a large black skull and crossbones emblazoned on it, a sign with which Annie didn't feel it was all right to argue with.

"Err." Kaylee scratched her head. "Good point. Where's your backpack?"

"You tell me."

"Damn. I reckon one of the lads picked it up." With an irritated look, she took her long, button-up coat off the stand by the ward door and tossed it at Annie. "C'mon, lets go."

"No way in hell I'm wearing just a coat across the city. I've never even _seen_ a city before."

"It's not far. Really." Kaylee made an 'I'm blatantly lying, what'cha gunna do about it?' face. "Ok, it is far. I'm not paying taxi, but I have an idea."

Annie was going to regret it, whatever it was.

* * *

"Shit! Kaylee, you're _insane_!" Annie wailed, clenching her legs together and fervently praying that it was too early for people to be looking up. They were a hundred metres above Saffron City, clinging to the back of Raf's gyarados as it shot through the air, the only indicator it existed to the ground-people a tiny sausage-shaped shadow slipping over the tops of skyscrapers. "Let me down! _Now_!"

Kaylee's laugh was lost to the wind. "Are you joking? This is amazing! I love flying!"

"I don't! We're going to die!"

"Softy." She stuck her tongue out. "Hold on tight! Gyarados, dive!"

Annie screamed as they plummeted downwards, air rushing past her, her bare legs frozen tightly around gyarados's body. She shut her eyes tightly and prayed to some deity that she lived, and that yesterday's dinner didn't come back to haunt her. The ground approached quicker than a rampaging tauros, and Annie knew- she _knew_- something horrible was going to go wrong and that they were going to crash and die horribly and she'd be a corpse in the middle of the street. The came closed to the ground, plunging between two skyscrapers, their glossy windows flitting into rolls of film on either side of them.

"Land!" Kaylee yelled, her eyes wide with life, clinging to the ridged protrusions n gyarados's back further forward. With a lurch, it pulled out of the dive and ticked to a stop in a small, dark side-street, sending a backgust whipping up discarded cardboard boxes and leaves along the alley. Hopping off, Kaylee offered a cold-looking hand (consider that she'd given her coat to preserved Annie's modesty) to the rather shell-shocked girl.

"Annie? Hullo-o?" she waved. "Come back to us, Softy."

"I-I'm f-ff-flying…" she jittered losing her grip and slipping off gyarados into Kaylee's arms. She staggered with the weight but regained her footing and sighed with relief. "K-k-Kaylee...ee…"

"We're down on the floor now, Softy, snap out of it."

"F-f-fflyii-"

Kaylee slapped Annie quite hard, which seemed to solve the problem. "Hello. Welcome back."

"Never, _ever_ do that to me again!" she raged, clasping the coat tighter around herself. "I'll kill you!"

"Yeh, yeh, sure thing. Gyarados, return." The massive serpent-dragon-thing disappeared in the characteristic flash of red. "You owe Raf big time for this."

"Oh, he'll get his comeuppance. I'll sock him one!"

"The idea of you harming Raf in any way is funny." Was the only reply she got to that. "Either way, let's get going. It's nearly seven."

Cursing under her breath, Annie followed Kaylee through the twisting alleyways that wrapped around and cowered under the skyscrapers, wincing as her naked feet stepped over stones and rubbish and various detritus that haunted the dreams of the city bigwigs. She noticed that as the buildings got larger and more grandiose, the winding streets sandwiched in-between them got darker and danker. They saw a few shy Grimer pooled by wheelie bins, and dirty, thin ratatta scampering between shadows. "Where are we going?"

"HQ."

"Is it one of these buildings?" Annie asked, amazed.

"Are you shitting in my cornflakes?" was the beautifully composed reply. "Do you know how much these things cost? Think billions. Per month."

The money for the rapidash suddenly didn't seem as much.

"Then where…?"

"Here."

They stopped in an inconspicuous alley. Faded posters were glued to the walls, flaking and almost indistinguishable, proclaiming some band's tour dates. "Here?"

Kaylee grinned and took out her mobile phone, punching in a long string of numbers. "HQ, this is Moore and plus-one, copy? 'Aight. 'Aight. Yes, I understand. Alright. Over."

"Moore? Kaylee _Moore_?"

She sniffed and glared at Annie. "Anything wrong with that, _Cooper_?"

"No. Nothing at all." They shared a smile. "So-"

She didn't get to finish the sentence before her stomach flew to somewhere between her eyes and they dropped through the earth into blackness punctuated by yellow lines- running down to the centre of the world. Annie felt sick and clung instinctually to Kaylee's arm while simultaneously making a ridiculous effort to keep the coat from blowing up and showing more than was necessary.

With a loud cry of 'shit!' echoing about, the underground swallowed them. Annie shivered, wondering how she'd come to be in such a strange world in such a short time. A juddering shriek of pistons signalled the end of the lift (if it could be called that), and it came to a stop about a hundred metres below Saffron City, leading out into a corridor lined with low blue lights, ending in a thick door with a keypad-swipecard locking device, the type they have on the critical care ward of a pokémon centre. Annie and Kaylee stepped out (well, Annie shuffled.) and dusted themselves off for no apparent reason.

"What a ride."

"I feel sick."

"Geez, flying, travelling, being sprayed by acid… is there anything that doesn't make you ill?"

"Shaddup, Kaylee."

"'Aight. We're off to see Proton."

"Can't I get some clothes?" she begged, the memory of wind in strange places too much to bear.

"No time. Follow me."

They sped off down the maze of blue-lit corridors, Kaylee using a dark swipecard to access areas deeper and deeper into the complex. They saw the transitory shadows of other people out of the corners of their eyes, slinking out of view before they could be resolved or defined. Although they passed several doors leading to amazing places- a jungle-like biodome, then a frozen wasteland and even an antique-furnished study, Kaylee ignored them all, stopping instead at a grubby, grey, metallic door with a big red 'X' painted onto it sloppily. Gulping, she wiped her forehead and swiped her card, allowing them into the room.

A wave of acrid smoke was the first thing to escape, followed by a scared-looking man in a lab coat who looked surprised that the door had opened without his input.

"Tomorrow, Connor!" a voice blared from the haze, and the scientist hurried out, his glasses wonky. He reminded Annie of the boy that the bikers killed- what was his name? Tom someone. "Who's about?"

"Moore, sir." Kaylee stood to attention. "Answering your summons, sir."

"Kaylee! My dear, it's been a long time since we saw you on base!" she flinched as a man emerged from the gloom. He was dressed in a rumpled black suit emblazoned with Team Rocket's red 'R', a cigarette in his hand and bright hair sticking out from under a slightly off-centred cap. Annie wanted to tell him that you shouldn't wear a hat indoors, but swallowed it pretty quickly when she saw the malice in his green eyes.

"My unit was out on ops, sir."

"Yes, I know." He replied, anger curling his lip. "And I saw what you came back with. A pretty poor average for two weeks, don't you think?" he pointed to a cluster of about thirty pokéballs on his desk.

"We were sent to a desolate sector. Lavender Town isn't very fertile in terms of stealable pokémon, sir." Kaylee held her ground, standing very much in an upright stance.

"I see. But you did manage to bring back a stray." He turned his wrathful gaze onto Annie. "And take it all the way into our HQ, too. Way to compromise security."

"She can be trusted. She has already helped me steal a pokémon, and to defeat the renegade bikers."

"Those shitheads. Even after we paid them off…" he took off his cap and ran a hand through his hair. Annie guessed he was in his late twenties. "Still, it's unacceptable. I'm putting you on domestics, at least until we've evaluated this lot and sorted out _her_."

"…Yes, sir." She took it stoically, though Annie recognised that from her clenched jaw, Kaylee would gladly have exploded on the spot like an electrode, jacked up with electricity to the brim.

"Good. Dismissed until further notice, Grunt."

"Sir-"

"I said _dismissed_." He hissed, and Kaylee backed out of the room, managing to mouth a hasty 'sorry' to Annie before the sliding door closed and obscured her from view. "Now, let's see." She remembered his name was Proton. "Have a seat, have a seat."

He was gesturing to a single white chair on the opposite side of his desk, and Annie doubtfully and slowly walked over to it, careful to pull the coat down before she sat down. His desk was cluttered with papers, a computer, several thick manila files full of notes and scribbles and a phone. It could have passed for an ordinary office worker's desk, had one of the files not read in big, black letters on the front, '**Potentially Dead**'. The others, almost comically, read '**Probably Dead**' and '**Definitely Dead**' respectively. Annie decided never to do anything to get her name in either of them.

"Now, tell me." Proton sat opposite her, searching the mess for a ballpoint pen, and finding one under a reference sheet for the blueprints of the Silph Co. building. "What a lovely young lass like yourself is doing with a group of nasty Team Rocket members?"

She hesitated, but he gave her no chance to think it over. "Don't be scared of uncle Proton, you can tell me."

Gulping, she spoke in a hollow voice that seemed to reverberate around the small, stuffy room. "I, uh, met them near where I live."

"And followed them?"

"No. Kaylee found my house and asked me along."

"She did, huh? Do you know why?"

She remembered what Kaylee'd said. "She said I handled pokémon well. It was my first time, she lent me her sandslash…"

"Our sandslash, you mean. All their pokémon belong, in the end, to Team Rocket." He corrected, stubbing out his fag in an ashtray with the face of Professor Oak, 'pokémon expert' who was growing in popularity around Kanto on it. She wondered as to the strange choice of decoration, but brought her focus back to the immediate threat: Proton. "But, ok, so you controlled sandslash well, talented, whatever. What else can you give me?"

"Give you?"

"Yeh. Credentials. Got any family ties? Lotsa friends that'll miss you?"

"…No." She thought guiltily back to her mum. "No, I don't."

"Ok. Ok. I like that. Maybe Kaylee isn't as stupid as I give her credit for. Got any pokémon?"

"A zubat."

"Toss it here." He commanded. Annie took the pokéball from the coat's pocket and threw it over to him. He opened it, examining the zubat with scrutiny. "Nice. This is a big one. I'm guessing you live near the Rock Tunnel?"

"Yes."

He took one of his own from his belt and chucked it into the air. The golbat from earlier appeared, now looking quite monstrous, size-wise. "My golbat is so big that I have to make it use minimize to look inconspicuous. I got it from the Rock Tunnel, too, though a long time ago."

The two bat pokémon examined each other, seeming quite comfortable. Then, Annie realised something. "Jared!"

Proton swivelled in his seat and nearly fell over. "What the-"

"You're Jared!" She insisted, remember his face from when she was very young. "Jared of Lavender Town!"

"Shit." Proton cussed under his breath. "Of all the people… oh, fuck…" he eyed her with suspicion. "Don't you dare tell anybody, alright? It's Proton. My name is Proton now. Jared died a _long_ time ago. And anyway, who the hell are you?"

"Alice Cooper's daughter."

"Crazy Cooper?" he reiterated, using the old town nickname for her mother, at which she flinched. "I didn't know she had a kid."

"She did. Does. I'm Annie."

"This is… odd." He admitted, stroking the bridge of his nose. "Eh, well, it must be destiny for the two of us to end up here, I suppose. If you're Crazy Cooper's kid, I trust you- Alec was rotten to the core. Like father, like daughter."

Her heart skipped a beat at the mention of her father's name. "You knew my dad?"

"Whoa. Hold up, kid. No more than anyone else did. All I know is he left with most of the money from the Lavender Pokémon centre's safe fourteen years ago and never returned. And the other stuff."

Annie sighed and collapsed back into the chair. She knew that story- everyone did. It was a small community in Lavender, and nobody had quite forgiven the Cooper family. Annie'd grown up with the spectre of her father's actions hanging over her, making her an outcast to begin with. "Alright. Thanks anyway."

"Don't get down about it. Leaving that shithole was the best thing I ever did. Look at me now." He gestured to his office. "Rocket Executive, I am. Making tonnes of money for something I get a kick out of anyway- it's great."

He sounded like he was trying to convince himself.

"I suppose." She conceded, mulling over all of this in her head. It was such a coincidence, that Jared would be here, that she would have done exactly the same thing as him. Perhaps it was, as he had suggested, destiny? She didn't believe in such things, but it did make her wonder.

"But any daughter of Alec's is a born criminal, and I'm happy to take you on if you'd like. Actually, forget that last part. You're in or you're in the 'Definitely Dead' file, which is not a happy place."

She looked at his eyes, and then at the file upon which his right hand was resting. It wasn't exactly a choice. "I'd like that."

He extended his hand, and without hesitation, she took it with a firm shake. She was in.


	4. Chapter 4

I'd love some reviews. I do take my time to write this shit, y'know.

And another note. Annie gives her dress size later on in this chapter. I am a British Citizen, therefore I use British sizing. Size 10 or 12 is the average teenage girl's dress size here; I believe that in the US that is something like a 6 or an 8, but don't quote me on that.

* * *

Chapter Four

* * *

Consequence is an awkward thing, especially when it collects like dew on one of those jungle leaves until it is large and dangerous enough to slide off and fall to the forest floor. At this point in consequence's lifespan, it tends to follow like a particularly loyal growlithe the person it is associated with. Each action, each word and each step makes consequence more and more powerful until it evolves into an arcanine. Then shit hits the fan, pardon the French.

If Annie's theoretical growlithe were to pounce from the shadows now, she wouldn't have been at all surprised. She signed her life away that day, under Jared's hypocritical gaze, signing with a scratchy flourish at the bottom of a long document that stated, in essence, that she belonged to Team Rocket.

It all seemed to happen slowly after that.

She was shown back along the underpassage by Proton, his hand on her shoulder. He was tall- a least six foot two- and he was much bulkier than she remembered that Jared had been, even if he was still quite slim for a guy. Then again, the only memories she had of him were of a lanky, greasy-haired teenager, nothing like the confident, cruel man he was now. She did some calculations in her head and realised that he'd left seven years ago, when she was ten, a further six or seven years after Alec had escaped. She wondered idly who would follow the migratory pattern next.

"So, fill me in." Proton asked as they travelled the seemingly endless passages. "Tell me everything."

"…There isn't much to tell. You of all people know nothing happens where we lived."

"No, I mean, how did you end up with Kaylee?"

"Oh." She told him the story as briefly as she could; in fairness it was a pretty brief story to begin with. It sounded so short in comparison to how long it felt- it seemed as though years and years separated the Annie that kicked stones in the power plant and the one that walked the underpassage with Proton by her side. They weren't different people, she understood, merely different mindsets. There was a new confidence in her that allowed her to hold her chin high and her back straight.

"It sounds like you have raw talent." He observed, punching in a code. "But it'll have to be honed before we can use it. We're rapidly expanding, and that's bringing problems in itself, plus the Boss's plans are getting a little ambitious. We need all the manpower we can get."

"Or womanpower."

He raised an eyebrow at her comment. "Look, I know our situation is weird… but I'm still your superior, and I have a reputation for wrathfulness. Let's keep it strictly business, yeh?"

"Okay. Sorry." She nodded. "Can I have some clothes now?"

The hint of a blush graced his cheeks, but left soon after. "Ah, that would be a good idea."

A door appeared to snap into existence next to them, even though Annie knew she'd just not been paying attention to it. Proton swiped his cardkey and they emerged from the oppressive chill of the corridors into a large, well-furnished room full of reclining Rockets, in various states of uniform and awakening. She spotted Jordan and Dean, hair ruffled and eyes sleepy, sitting in the corner mumbling. All the activity seemed to freeze as Proton entered, with caps hastily pulled over bed-hair and boots tugged onto besocked feet.

"Good morning, A-Squad!" Proton boomed, surveying his underlings with a practiced cruel ease. "Nice to see you all ready for action!"

They scrambled up to stand to military attention, looking shell-shocked. "Now, that's better. We have an interesting schedule today, ladies and gents. The Pokémon Convention opens this afternoon, and we know what that means!"

"Yes, sir!" they chorused.

"Indeed." He chuckled, sparing a glittering glance for Annie before continuing. "A jackpot! This is our chance to etch Team Rocket's name into the history books for good! I expect the best from all of you, understood?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Good. Crews One and Two will be Initials today-" there was a groan. "-Shut up. Three and Four, you're Snatching, and Five is Cleanup. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Off to your stations, then! We have four hours until blast-off!"

Annie watched as they ran off, leaving the room almost deserted. Jordan and Dean seemed to have been able to anticipate Proton's will and walked demurely towards them, stifling yawns.

"Ah, you two. Excellent. Annie here needs kitting out and training up. Understood?"

"Yes, sir." The automated response was beginning to grate on her nerves a little.

"Dismissed." He slunk off, presumably back to his office, lighting a cigarette as he went. The door slid to a close behind him and they were left together in a sort of awkward silence.

"So." Dean begun, scrutinizing her. "How did you get that skin back?"

"Hospital sprayed it on."

"Seriously? Coolio!" he poked her face, expecting it to squish or run off or something equally as idiotic. "Aww. Still, I'm glad you're alright. Raf was having kittens. He even sent over his gyarados to get you."

"He was?" that was strange. Raf didn't strike her as the caring type.

"Yeah. The last time I saw him so anal was when with that Old Lady's Victreebel."

Jordan sniffed, as though remembering something terrible. "Anyway. Let's go. I'm not missing that Convention."

"Geez, Okay, Sir Jordoc the Rigid. Cool your beans." Dean flipped him off, but he turned around and started walking briskly for another door.

They shared a look and ran after him, catching up in time for him to swipe his card and let them back into the underpassages.

"I hate this place." Dean said. "It gives me the willies."

"Shouldn't you have the willies anyway?" she asked, grinning. She liked Dean. He was easygoing but not as outrageous as Raf, nor as self-destructive.

"You'll never know." He winked in reply. Jordan wove an interesting route through the network of roads, mumbling under his breath. He didn't seem like a morning person, or perhaps he was this anal all the time.

After a while, they came upon a lift that was suspiciously similar to the one that Annie and Kaylee had come down on and piled in, pressing the 'B3F' button. Annie supposed that they must be on B4F, then. Jesus, this place was massive. She made a mental note never to set off unless she was with somebody who knew the routes. At least her coat wasn't billowing up as they ascended. Small mercies.

As they walked, Annie examined Jordan and Dean. They were both in their late teens, at least- a couple of years older than her. Dean was short and stocky, bearing some visible muscles and closely cropped brown hair. His skin was quite dark, implying that he was Cinnibarian or even originally from outside of Kanto. Jordan was the opposite- tall, slim and blonde, with hair that had a sand-like colour to it. She felt very ordinary in comparison to the cast of characters in her new life. Annie was wispish, with no visible curves, and dull brown hair and eyes. She supposed that if she really tried, she could be beautiful, but it was a long shot at best. Perhaps she should ask Kaylee.

Perhaps it didn't matter, really.

"Do you know your size?" Jordan asked politely as they entered a large stockroom filled with boxes.

"Uh, 10, I think."

"Skirt or trousers?"

"Skirt."

"Shoe size?"

"Six." He ran off and began to pull various items of clothing out of boxes that were scattered around.

"Dean, wanna get the rest?"

"What's the magic word?"

"Dean, get the _fucking _rest." He shouted from far inside a box of gloves.

Dean tutted. "Someone pissed in his coco-pops this morning."

"Really?"

"No, it's a saying."

"Oh." She gave him a bashful smile. Dean rolled his eyes and promised to be back in two ticks of a tauros's tail, disappearing into an adjoining room.

"Here." Jordan offered her a set of clothing. "Try it on."

"Is there any… underwear?"

He looked appalled. "Lord save me… I forgot. Sorry. I'll show you, you can pick some."

Leading her to the back of the room, he pointed to a small box of ordinary white underclothes for women and ran off, presumably to 'help' Dean. Annie picked out some pairs and with a blissful sigh, put them on. She'd been waiting for that for too long. She then could try on the uniform over it. A long-sleeved black top of thick polycotton tucked into a standard trainer's belt- six clips of pokéballs, three each side. She had her suspicions as to the minimal length of the skirt, but knew better than to complain. A small pair of thin black shorts was provided to go underneath and improve mobility.

It was only as she pulled on a pair of grey boots that she felt something of her old self slip away. It was not as such something that she could categorise, or even identify, but she felt it keenly and almost- an important almost- wept. Too much had changed. She was out of her comfort zone, however confident she had become, and there was an element of uncharted danger in relation to her being, her 'soul', if you like. Identity had never been particularly important to Annie; she knew who she was, even if who she could be was always an issue, but now… it just seemed more difficult, was all.

Jordan and Dean came back with that thought as she was putting on her gloves. It was a professional outfit, for sure, and completed with the signature black cap, it had a strange power to it.

"Lookin' good, Annie." Dean high-fived her. "Here, we got you some shit. Mobile phone, spare pokéballs, the shiz."

"Thanks." She took the gear, connected the minimised balls to her belt, including her own zubat, and put the phone in its handy pouch.

"'Aight. We got stuff to do, but I know someone who has all the time in the world who can train you…"

* * *

Kaylee was not a happy bunny.

It was meant to show initiative, to recruit new members on the road- surely Alec Cooper's daughter was of worth, even if there was no trace of him at their house? It should've shown that she was hardworking and charismatic. But no, of course, all she'd really earned was more time in domestics, the most boring and menial job in Team Rocket. She'd have the distinguished honour of cleaning toilets, mopping floors, doing ironing, folding laundry and making beds. What more could a criminal ask for?

She shouldn't be complaining. Kaylee wasn't in any position to complain- who was she but a lowly grunt? Still, she hoped that at some point her career would take off and she'd be amongst the execs. It wasn't for want of trying, because Kaylee Moore did try- more than she should, really. More than was necessary. It was something she'd inherited from her older brother, Daniel, even if they were on different sides. While he'd been the golden boy of the family- smart, good with pokémon, bright future ahead of him, and Kaylee had always sort of basked in his shadow. It hadn't been a problem when she was a child, but when she'd had her own dreams, her own aspirations, she'd realised that they'd been forgotten under Daniel's flair.

That was when she became rebellious. It'd been her fourteenth birthday, and Daniel had just won his seventh gym badge, coming home to a massive celebration. They'd forgotten about her. Incensed by what she saw as a final act of betrayal, Kaylee had upped and left that very night and never returned.

Of course she'd struggled. Her family had lived in Pewter City, so she'd escaped through Mt. Moon, where she'd met a strange scientist looking at fossils. He'd needed a dogsbody; she'd needed money. She didn't realise that she'd begun working for Team Rocket until a few weeks later when she heard a police report about criminal activity. Eager to please, and to be necessary for the first time in her life, she'd signed up and never looked back.

Except for now, of course.

"Kay?" It was Raf, looking casually beautiful as usual. The beginnings of a beard on his chin gave him a rugged look, but when he flicked about his curly black hair there was no mistaking him for a smooth gentleman. He was wearing the winter coat that fell to well below his knees and a red scarf slug about his neck, cap on sideways. Raf had always been able to get away with anything he wanted: he infuriated Kaylee to no end.

"What d'you want?" she asked, voice tired and scratchy from the early start.

"My gyarados." She took the ball off her belt and tossed it at him. He caught it. Of course Raf would catch it. "What's up?"

"Domestics."

"Low!" she could feel him sniggering behind his dark eyes. "How's Annie?"

"I haven't seen her since Proton threw me outta his office, have I?"

"Shit." He looked genuinely worried.

"What're you up to, Raf?"

"Nuthin'."

"Liar."

"Of course I'm lying. Figuring me out turns you on, so I thought I'd be mysterious."

"Eck. I wouldn't touch you with a barge pole." She flipped him off.

"Your loss, sweetheart." He stuck his tongue out. "I'll leave you to brood and sweep, then?"

He turned to leave, and Kaylee reluctantly set down the cloth she was holding, grabbed her cap and followed him out. "I hate you, Rafael."

"You and the whole rest of the female population of Kanto. 'Cept one..." He said slyly, stretching his languid arms with a big yawn.

"Oh, hell no."

"Oh, hell yes, my friend."

"I forbid it! She's like… sixteen!"

"And?" he challenged with an eyebrow. "Who're you to decide?"

"Raf, she's just left home and nearly been killed! Last thing she needs is your grubby hands all over her!"

He winked. "I'll wash 'em first."

* * *

"Why does everyone call Jordan Jordoc?" Annie asked curiously as she was lining up in a massive cafeteria with Dean. "Sir Jordoc, like."

He sniggered, taking the tray allocated to him. "Avoid the horseradish."

"That's not an answer." She took his advice and went for the chicken salad instead. "And why were you lot up near Lavender anyway? Surely you can tell me now."

"Beans." He told the server. "It's a long story."

"Really? Peas."

"Yes." He grabbed a bottle of spring water and made an empty table. It reminded Annie of her school cafeteria, but filled with a sea of black hats and bickering criminals. She'd dropped out of school two years ago, so it was a bit nostalgic.

They sat down. "Can you tell me now?"

"Eesh. You don't let up, do you?" he gulped down his drink. "Well, me, Kaylee, Raf and Jordan are a crew. Crew 5, to be exact, of A-Squad. It's how we're organised, see? We do all our jobs together. We were meant to be doing Vermillion City, but basically Raf is a jackass. He fucked something- or rather, someone- up, and news got around to the execs, so they send us to god-forsaken Lavender instead."

"Send to…?"

"Steal pokémon." He said. "Duh. Get it into your head; it's what we do most of the time. Well, our bit, anyway- the scientists are up to their armpits in the Boss's special projects and wild dreams."

"What kinds of projects?" she asked after swallowing a big bite of tasteless lettuce.

"How'm I to know, Annie? I'm no sci-fi-guy. Stuff with pokémon. Experiments."

"Like?"

"Hello, ladies!" A tray slammed down opposite Annie, next to Dean, making him jump a mile. Raf's big, beaming smile dazzled them as he practically jumped down onto the bench, followed by a stressed-looking Kaylee. "'Sup?"

"The ceiling, numbnuts."

"My nuts get plenty, thanks for the offer." He chuckled, cracking open a tube of smarties and tossing seven into the air. He caught them all in his mouth and crunched them about. "Speaking of, how're you doin', Annie?"

"Good, thanks."

"Nice to see you got your skin back." He twirled some spaghetti around his fork in a pseudo-sexy fashion. "What're you up to now? I see you're in uniform. Sticking around?"

"Yes, I thought I would."

"Great? Are you raiding with us this afternoon?"

"No. I have to train first."

"Of course." He reminded himself. "Basic Training. Fun times. Who's taking you through it?"

"The only person not raiding this afternoon, of course."

All heads turned to Kaylee, who was poking the horseradish glumly. "_Me_. Thanks for the support, guys."

"Aww, if you train with Kaylee you'll end up with a massive stick up your-" Dean's fist met the side of his head, sending Raf under the table with a crash. "What? Just sayin'…"

"Well, don't. It's the shit that Kaylee has to do domestics, and we should very well stay behind and help her, but I don't see anyone volunteerin'."

"Duh. Why would we? Domestics is boring as snorlax sex." Raf fished out a packet of fags from one of his coat pockets and lit up with that 'I-don't-care' flourish that only assholes can pull off. "Not that I know what snorlax sex is like."

"Yeh, yeh, we've seen your laptop, Raf." Dean snorted. "Red-hot magikarp lovin', Volume 3."

"I love you too." Raf made a silly, kissy face and put his feet up on the table. "I'll steal in your place, brave comrades!"

"I thought I heard your beautiful voice." Jordan drawled, approaching the table with a very smug look on his face. "Check my epaulets, asshole."

"Your what?"

"…Just look." He swivelled around to show where military-style stripes were sewn onto the upper arm of his uniform top. He had two horizontal gold stripes; more than Dean, Raf or Kaylee were in possession of.

"Oh, fuck-a-farfetch'd." Raf poked the second stripe. "You seriously got a promotion?"

"Read 'em and weep, grunts. Jordan is moving up in the world."

"Take a chill pill, Jordoc, and come sit with us lowly 'grunts'. Y'know, your friends?" Raf offered him a smartie, though he declined politely.

"Naw. I just came here to gloat- I've got lots of work to do, organising the raid and everything."

"You can go stick a-"

"That's enough, Raffy." Kaylee patter him on the shoulder in a friendly manner. "Go off and do your shit, Jordan. Have sex with your new stripe, if you want."

"Now you've mentioned it, I will." He huffed, turning on his heels and striding off.

"I'm confused. Do we like Jordan or not?" Annie asked, peeling off the lid of a low-fat yoghurt. "And for pete's sake, why do you call him Sir Jordoc?"

They all sighed in unison. "Jordoc's got big dreams. He's the youngest of six, and all his other siblings are big-shots. Inferiority complex, y'get'me?"

"I see. But why-"

The loud bell rung out, sounding like a klaxon, and a voice began to blare from loudspeakers positioned around the room. "_This is Proton. Will the lazy fucks in the cafeteria get off their arses and congregate in briefing room B. Reapeat, lazy fucks to briefing room B. That is all._"

"He's got such a stellar sense of style don'cha think?" Dean joked darkly, setting his knife and fork down. "Well, I suppose me and Raf are off. We'll rendezvous later, mkay?"

"'Aight. Have fun." They got up and left, pulling their caps on as they went.

Then Annie and Kaylee were alone again.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello. Does anyone read this? Anyone? Probably not. Ach.

* * *

Chapter Five

* * *

Physics is a strange thing: the idea that a human being can legitimately travel faster than their anatomy allows in nature is something odd in itself, adding electricity to the mix makes it positively ludicrous. This was why Annie was not a fan of trains.

There was of course the defunct Magnet Train, although it hadn't run between Kanto and Johto since before Professor Oak had been born. The two nations had gone from relative peace to a sort of policy of détente after the terrorism from way back. At least they'd called it terrorism; vicious forest fires, electricity cuts and snowstorms were amongst the proposed acts of terrorism inflicted on both nations. Kanto blamed Johto, Johto blamed Kanto. The derailing of the Magnet Train was the last straw.

Though a few tram and overland train lines ran around, Annie knew that Saffron, being the massive metropolis that it is, had its own underground. Never did she think she'd be travelling in secret down its disused maintenance line in a double-carriage train to an undisclosed location.

The conductor and his crew were of course associates of Team Rocket; though they didn't wear a uniform, their eyes told enough. Apparently they operated most of the organisation's logistical side- something that big couldn't exists without supply lines to every corner of the continent. They didn't seem keen on passengers, especially women, but they nodded and went back to their work, soot-faced and indistinguishable in the gloom of the tunnels. Her and Kaylee were relegated to the passenger carriage, which had been stolen straight from a mothballed subway train- though it seemed strangely ghostly with only two passengers. Annie had always imagined the underground to be filled with business commuter types on the way to work, school-bound students and wives of leisure out for a day at the shops. She looked at the posters and notices- they were from at least thirty years ago. This must have been one of the very first trains introduced during the industrial boom.

She and Kaylee sat opposite one another- the latter seemed awfully morose. Annie wondered if she was truly upset about not being able to go out and steal pokémon- or if it was something else, something a little deeper. Memories, perhaps? Had she been reminded of days gone by, in which things were simpler?

"Ugh. Trains make me feel sick." Kaylee complained, nursing her stomach. "I like walking. But no, we couldn't _possibly_ walk, it's _far_ to much a distance away…"

"Where exactly are we going?"

"North-ish. See, I've been with Team Rocket five years, and a lot has changed in that time. For instance, we got a new boss, and he had much bigger dreams than the last one. He's started expanding- but only recently. We're building a better training centre on some island somewhere, but for now we still have our original one in the mountains, where I myself was trained."

"…Five years?"

"Yes. I celebrated my nineteenth birthday the night I met you." She smiled. "Though when we're out on a rekkie, we kinda drink like that most nights… You missed the cake."

"Why didn't you say?"

"Why would I have? We'd just met." She looked a bit queasy. "Besides, birthdays aren't much for me nowadays. Just getting older isn't… well, I did all my growing up early."

"I never though much of birthdays either, to be honest."

"How old are you? I never did find out. But you look pretty young."

"Grr." She pouted. "I'm not as young as I look. Seventeen."

"Raf thought you were sixteen. Close, I suppose." She took out her phone and flipped it open. "Another reason to hate trains. No_ bloody_ signal."

"Who're you texting?"

"The boys. They're about to start the raid." She showed Annie the last text she'd received from Dean.

[_Proton's about to shit himself, lol. Sumthin wrong with recap mechs? Any ideas? Xx_]

"What's a 'recap mech'?"

"Recapture Mechanism. You know that you can't usually capture a pokémon that's already been captured by another trainer? Well, we have Recap Mechs to sort that out."

"I see."

"At a Convention, most trainers'll have their pokémon outta balls. Basics, it's uber difficult to transport actual fleshy pokémon at any speed, so what we generally do is used our special recap mechs to- you guessed it- recapture trainers' pokémon."

"And there's a problem with them?"

"Well…" Kayle scratched her head, "We've adapted them from technology prevalent in the Orre region, but the shit they sold us isn't exactly foolproof at the best of times. It keeps fucking up, and Proton gets anal when it does."

"…Where is Orre?"

Kaylee raised an incredulous eyebrow. "You don't know?"

"I know Kanto and Johto, and I know that sometimes we trade goods with Hoenn, but I've never heard of Orre."

"Orre is an arid region to the far south-west. It's too barren and hot for most pokémon to run wild, so thievery of pre-owned ones is common there."

Annie absorbed this quietly, shifting in her seat as they changed tracks with a jolt. There was so much she didn't know- so much beyond what she'd even expected, and it was a little frightening. Everyone seemed much more knowledgeable and experienced.

They talked a bit more, before Kaylee checked her phone and announced that they should get a nap now since there were several hours left until they made it to the mountains. She reached into the overhead rack and pulled out two somewhat threadbare blankets, offering one to Annie and curling up on four seats. She mimicked her companion, despite feeling restless, which seemed to be a side-effect of belonging to Team Rocket.

Annie spent a couple of hours alternating her gaze between Kaylee's sleeping face and the luminous clock display on the phone clutched in her hand. Strangely enough, Kaylee looked much younger without her usual facial contortions- as if she'd been preserved a second before some great shattering calamity. Again, she wondered about Kaylee… her past, whom she was beneath the black cap.

And why did they call Jordan Jordoc!

These were the questions that plagued her so.

* * *

Waking up an hour later, freezing cold and splayed out on the floor of the carriage was not Annie's idea of a good snooze. Waking up to a hulking, spectacularly ugly and dirty man shaking her with a meaty slab of a hand wasn't high on her list either. In fact, nor was waking up anyway.

"Mnn…" she yawned, sitting up and stretching like it was early morning despite the fact that dusk was beginning to fall. Seeing the men, she blushed and skittered backwards before realising that she was fully clothed. "Oh."

"Mornin', sunshine." Kaylee giggled, adjusting her cap, presumably to hide her hat-hair. "Well, not exactly, but yeh. Shrug your sleepiness off, you're in for some shit and a half."

"Ugh. Five more minutes?" she whined in response, rubbing dust out of her eyes.

"Hell no. Get up, Viper's expecting us at fifteen-hundred-hours exactly."

"Fifteen-hundred?"

"…Three o'clock, dumbass."

"Eesh, keep your pants on." Annie muttered, standing up and folding the blanket. "It's so cold!"

"We _are_ in the northern mountain ranges. I think they have a name, but for the life of me I can't remember it…"

"They'm call t' Scully Peaks." One of the crewmen interjected. "An' t' less time we'm 'ere, t' better. Dis'm'bark, if yeh'd please."

"Aye-aye." Kaylee mocked his accent, sour pout on her face as they opened the door, releasing a gust of frozen air into the carriage. "Looking forward to seein' ya again, boys."

"Likewise." One of them muttered darkly, snorting through his cigarette. "Thems Rockets shud recruit mor' girlies in t' future, 'specially pretties."

"This is our cue to get the fuck out of here." Kaylee grabbed Annie's arm and jumped from the train to the platform, which turned out to be nothing more than a patch of gravel below a ladder that led to a manhole. "Ladies first." She joked.

Annie started climbing, easing the cover at the top to the side and poking her head out into the snow. She'd never seen so much snow before- occasionally when there was a cold winter, some drifted down to Lavender, but never before had the scenery looked like it was an iced cake. Coniferous trees were dotted around in chilly clusters as though they were huddling together to share warmth, swaying to and fro in the icy wind. It was beautiful. But Annie was not wearing thermal underwear, and would, in honesty, prefer to be riveted to a radiator than to stay out here for another second.

"C'mon!" Kaylee shouted over the rustling and creaking of the mountains, beckoning Annie the other way. "It's only a couple of miles!"

"Are you having a giggle?" she replied. "A couple of miles? In this? I'll be a snowcone in a hundred paces!"

"Quit whining! This is _nothing _compared to Viper's drills!"

Shit.

They trekked side by side, and within about five minutes Annie's boots were soaked through and she had gained, somewhat comically, the appearance of a particularly lopsided children's' snowman. Or snow-woman. Or even snow-person, to be politically correct- not that Team Rocket seemed too worried about that. She began to think that perhaps the training involved them making an igloo and living in the wild. Because that would be… well, she'd not have come here if that were the case. She wanted to become disciplined; she wanted to give herself a purpose and an aspiration- but not hypothermia, thank you very much.

"Here!" Kaylee gestured through the rising snowstorm to a small cave, barely visible. Annie's heart dropped at the sight of it, trying not to think of her nice, comfy feather bed back at home. "Hurry up, or we'll be late!"

That was kinda the last of Annie's worries. She liked her fingers attached to her body.

"F-ff-fuc…" she immediately stopped mid-cussword when they reached the mouth of the cave. A massive wave of heat emanated from it, and electric lights were strung along the top, flickering and casting wild shadows on the rocky walls. "What the…"

"Just follow, Softy." Kaylee grinned and jogged ahead, seemingly energised. Sighing, Annie ran after her, her limbs barely moving she was so cold. They got deeper and deeper until cladding began to appear on the walls and the rock became flat underfoot. "Right, I hope you're good at climbing."

"…Why?" Annie asked, hoping, fervently pleading, that it was just some stairs.

"Well, it's about a hundred metres up and if you fall you'll probably die."

"…Are you _fucking _serious?" I was the first time she'd properly sworn, and it felt weird.

"Ooh. I'm rubbing off on you." The older girl stuck her tongue out but remained serious. "You go first, I'll stay down to catch you." And you know, looking at Kaylee's physique, she probably could.

What it turned out to be was a climbing wall- well, it was a sheer rock face with some strategically placed and slightly worn handholds, obviously designed to prevent anybody without the level of skill necessary to climb it getting any nearer the secret training facility- if there was one. She certainly hoped so. Gingerly finding a handhold, she pulled her body up, trying to remember when she used to do this around the Rock Tunnel as a child. You needed to spread weight evenly and move nimbly. And not look down.

"Keep going!" Kaylee shouted from what seemed like a long way down but was in fact only ten feet or so. "Just watch out for the-"

Click. Snap. Brrrrr….

And the wall began to shake.

"-For the traps…" Kaylee sighed to herself and scrambled up behind her protégé, hooking their arms together to guide Annie's quivering hands. "Just copy me!"

There may have been a nod, but it was swallowed by wide-eyed fear as Annie tried not to panic too much. They slowly traversed the wall, knuckles white as the mechanics hidden behind the wall began to tip it to a steeper incline while also shaking it, making grip difficult. Kaylee'd done this before, five years ago, but had trouble recalling the correct route to the top. Was it left, or right? Which one triggered the lava?

Oh, fuck it.

"Make a break for it!" she yelled, yanking a rigid Annie from where she was staring down into the gloom like a deer caught in headlights. "Come _on_, slowpoke!"

"But-"

"No buts!" Gritting her teeth, hauling Annie further up the wall. "Hesitation will get you nowhere! There's only today! Only now! Kill or be killed, climb or _fucking fall!_"

Click. Snap. Glub, glub…

"Go!" They scampered up just as one of the handholds flew off to make way for a torrent of molten lava, spurting out of the wall and oozing downwards, the bright orange-red of death. With an eep, Annie sped up her pace, suddenly remembering how to climb now that a real threat was present. They dodged flaming bursts of acrid magma, racing up the remaining forty metres like hell was napping at their heels. Annie shouted when one of her handholds shot out and the lava doused her hand- luckily she was wearing gloves, but she still burned her fingers badly and couldn't grip properly. It was only ten metres left- ten metres that Kaylee knew she had the energy to carry somebody as light as Annie up.

"On my back!"

"What?"

"Just do it!" Annie obediently scrambled over and clung tight like the Shellder on a Slowbro's tail to Kaylee's body, crying just a little and shaking a whole lot more. It seemed to have come out of nowhere, the peril, and it was so alien to a small-towner like Annie that she couldn't quite comprehend that it was happening. With her head pressed into the dark crook of Kaylee's neck, she had somehow regressed into childhood. Though, admittedly, a lava-filled climbing wall on a snowy mountain was not the place to do this.

With one almighty pull, she levered the two of them off the wall and onto the sawdust-covered platform, sweating like an ox. "Jesus, Annie…"

"Sorry." She squeaked, relinquishing her lamprey-like grip. "It's just…"

"You've never scaled a sheer lava-drenched cave wall before?"

"Yeh. That."

"Don't sweat it. Y'aight?"

Annie nodded and pulled herself up onto her knees. "I think so…" she winced as she pulled her glove off, revealing swollen, red, fingertips.

"Ouch. Well, it's not that bad. We're past the really difficult shit now, there's just the maze."

Maze!

Kaylee burst out laughing. "Oh lord, the look on your face… I'm pissing about with you, honey."

"If my hand didn't hurt so bad…" Annie threatened, cheeks red, but immeasurably relieved.

"C'mon, Softy." Kaylee stood and offered her a hand and they began their walk again, as though the wall of lava had never happened. The sawdust gave way to black tiles reminiscent of a cellar, with rooms full of dusty boxes and white sheets untouched by the ravages of time.

Finally, after years had passed there was a set of staircases leading up, up and into the dazzling light. Annie blinked, not quite sure of what exactly was happening. Then she saw it.

A massive window, spanning at least fifty-by-fifty metres, opened a gigantic atrium to the blinding white of the snow outside. Light sifted in through the panes, spilling into crevasses and ridding the whole room of shadows. The floor was white, the walls were white- it was as though she was outside again.

"What the hell?"

"Hehe," Kaylee chuckled, closing the door to the underworld and sealing them inside the White Room. "This room's cut straight into the face of the tallest mountain, Gulath."

"Gulath?"

"The Scully Peaks 're named after prehistoric pokémon, now that I remember. Gulath is the highest, with his consorts Kethillion and Maross."

"I've never heard of them." Annie said quietly, utterly transfixed by the sight of the snowstorm raging outside. Beyond that was the whole of Kanto splayed out before her, with Johto peeking into the right, and faraway on the eastern horizon was Sinnoh. At least, she supposed it must be Sinnoh, since it looked like an ice cream, and that was how it had looked on the world map. The world appeared so small, so close, almost as though she could reach her hand out and grab it. "Wow. What happens in here?"

"Mostly lectures and some drills. Also they deck this place out for graduation ceremonies."

"Graduation? Like a school?"

Kaylee paused and rummaged in her skirt pocket, pulling out a small plastic rectangle about the size of a debit card. "Lookie."

It was light green in colour, like a provisional driver's licence, with a grainy mugshot of Kaylee's face- at least, it probably was, she was at least four years younger with shorter hair. Her details were on there, with a big red 'R' in the corner.

"Oh my God. _Lame_, Kaylee!" Printed on the back were the words '**Licensed to Steal**'. Below were other categories of qualification, such as fraud, extortion, overall cruelty and perhaps bizarrely at the bottom of the long list of wrongdoings, also 'Pastry chef'. "… Cookery?"

"It was my elective. Back in my day, it was cookery or woodwork. But Giovanni got rid of it, didn't he? 'Cause it was costing, and Giovanni is the shits when it comes to penny-pinching. He's a fucking scrooge, like; all our money goes into science now. I took a seventeen percent pay cut year 'fore last. Seventeen percent- d'you know how much that is?"

"How much do you get paid to begin with?"

"…Well… what, you mean nowadays? Or back then, adjusting for inflation?"

"Uh, nowadays. I didn't read the contract that Ja-Proton got me to sign."

"It's about thirty-four thousand a year, give or take. Obviously some shit happens and I get bonuses for rare snatches, but that's about the scope of it."

"That's a lot of money. What do you spend it on?" Annie wondered aloud, trying in vain to tear her eyes from the world in front of her.

"Well, I pay Team Rocket rent for my flat in Saffron, which they own. I pay for any food not from the cafeteria… any mufti clothes I want. Oh, and drink, and drugs, and cigarettes… it adds up."

Annie cringed. "You do all of that stuff?"

Shrugging, Kaylee gestured for them to continue, apparently back into the mountain and away from the stark magnificence of the White Room. "Not as much as the lads, but yeh. You look surprised."

"I'm not sure what I think of those kinds of things." She admitted, following Kaylee through double doors into a well-lit corridor lined with paintings of the mountain landscape. They still hadn't met anyone else.

"Well, for me it was a freedom thing. I decided to go for it, try everything once. I know Raf has issues, Jordan doesn't really care, Dean will go along with it."

"Doesn't sound very… I dunno, driven."

Kaylee giggled, punching a code into a slidey door. "We're not, really. We sorta glide by in life. Well, not Jordoc, he's wanted a promotion for ages."

"Why do you call him-"

"MY, WHAT HAVE WE HERE!" A deep, booming voice that very nearly shattered Annie's eardrums yelled from just behind the door. "OH! KAYLEE!"

"…sir." She saluted him by clutching her fist to her chest. "I wondered when we'd… hear… you."

"MY DEAR, I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU ALL DAY!" he said (shouted?), presumably unaware quite how loud he was being.

"Sir, couldya… quieten down a bit? Annie's ears haven't adjusted yet."

"HUH? Oh… sorry. I've been drilling the youngsters this morning. It's weird to have a second generation." Annie gave him a strange look. "Oh, hullo there. I'm Viper, the drill sergeant here. Good to meet you."

"Same." She shook his hand, feeling her poor bones click under the brute force of his handshake. "Sorry, what did you mean by 'younger generation'?"

He chuckled and motioned for them to follow him. Annie noticed that his Mohawk was… purple. Strange. He looked quite strict and military, but a purple Mohawk…

They passed many locked doors in a refreshing pine-scented corridor, boarded with bright mountain wood that was varnished smooth underfoot. There were no windows, the somehow the impression of the location remained. "Here, take a look." Viper motioned through a small window in one of the doors, behind which was a large dojo-style room. Children of varying ages were cooling down and stretching around the edges, dressed in simple tracksuits, chatting animatedly. Viper swung the door open and they all scrambled to attention, looking deathly afraid of him.

"SQUAD!" He boomed, and they tensed. "SQUAD FOR INSPECTION, CLOSE ORDER MARCH!"

The front row took three strides forward, the back row took three steps backwards and the middle row stood stock-still. Annie looked at their faces- the youngest must have been five or six, the eldest around twelve. There were eighteen of them in all- three rows of six. They looked, for kids… pretty scary.

Viper's crunching boots were unusually silent as he walked around the children, eyeing them critically. "Very well… AT EASE!"

"You've got them pretty perfect, sir." Kaylee observed. "Is that little Jimmy I see?"

"Yes, it is." Viper chuckled. "Want to talk to him? They've finished their drill now."

"Sure." Kaylee rounded his muscley bulk and waved merrily to the youngest, who was in the process of messing up his very red hair. He saw her and exclaimed a loud 'Kay!', before the two of them hugged in a very brotherly way.

Viper snapped Annie back to the doorway. "Welcome to the Mountain Training Facility, anyhow. This is the next generation- children of members of Team Rocket. They come here for the holidays to train and 'camp'- you know, they have snowball fights and toast marshmallows. On a good day I take 'em to the hot springs."

"How old is Team Rocket? Surely forty years or more, to have a second generation?"

"Yes. I've been here since I left the army at twenty-nine, so, and even when I joined we were already established under Madame Boss." He looked at his watch and blanched. "We're getting slack! There's much more to show you before supper. Kaylee knows how to handle the kids, I'll give you a quick tour."

"Thanks." Annie nodded; eyes flickering to where Kaylee was zooming around giving Jimmy a piggy-back. "Who is he?"

"Jim?" Viper motioned for them to begin walking. "That's a story for her to tell."

That sounded kind of ominous.


	6. Chapter 6

A massive thank-you to Sara, Nick, and Storyteller of Darkness, my reviewers. I love you guys more than I can say, so here's a super-long chapter where lots happens for you.

* * *

Chapter Six

* * *

A few hours later, Annie sat in a middling lounge some indiscriminate location between the splendour of the White Room and the cowing simplicity of the dormitories, navel-gazing. One particular coffee-cup ring on a small grey table opposite her was the focal point of this (though perhaps, properly, it should have actually been her navel), upon which were three objects: a thin romance novel, dog-eared and much perused, a pencil whittled almost to nothingness and a seven inch long serrated knife.

She wasn't sure which one scared her more.

This place surely told more about Team Rocket than the neatly-ironed black uniform, than the maleficent grins and the stark insignificance of places like the White Room, that belonged to nobody and answered to no human master. It was grubby, it was ordinary; it was, she supposed profoundly a human room, with a brown carpet of dropped conversations, and scattered issues of the daily paper like birds of prey in the periphery of her vision. Nevertheless, it was so far her favourite room, being the one in which she felt least like an outsider.

Entering, a man of his early twenties completely forgot to look and tripped over the draft excluder (amusingly sewn into the likeness of a short, fat ekans) that guarded the door to the lounge. He cursed, loudly, and fell flat on his face. Making a groaning noise, he pulled himself up on his arms and looked around furtively to check that nobody had seen his blunder. Annie, unfortunately, had, and began giggling softly when his cheeks reddened.

"I- I, uh, wasn't paying attention," he lamely apologised, hopping up to reveal a heavily muscled build. His hair was dark and his skin was tanned, and he had a sort of strong silent air about him that revealed actually that he was soft-centred, like a truffle. This reminded Annie how hungry she was. "You didn't see that, yes?"

"Of course not." Annie chuckled, crossing her legs absentmindedly. He was quite attractive, though unfortunately after meeting Raf with his roguish good looks, she now compared everyone to him. A nagging voice told her that she liked him, but then faltered and died out when she remembered, regrettably, that he was a twat. "Are you alright?"

"Takes more than gravity to get me!" he replied proudly, kind of posing. "I'm Hugh, by the way."

"Annie." She tentatively shook his hand, remembering Viper's vice grip. "Where are you from? Your accent is strange."

"Sevii Islands, me. I've come here to round off my training- I aspire to become skilled enough to earn my place at the Gym in Saffron City."

"Then you're a fighting-type trainer." Annie confirmed, remembering that she'd seen the gym briefly as they entered Saffron, with its hulking, ape-ish trainers, gi so tight they might asphyxiate through them.

"That's right. Third dan black belt, and when I get my fourth I can take the entrance test for the gym. I'll be leader in no time!"

Annie smiled softly at his enthusiasm. Obviously, he was brought up very differently to her- full of fire and life, aching for improvement. "Go for it, if that's your dream."

Hugh grinned abashedly, scratching his close-cut black hair. "Thanks. This place is amazing, though- have you been to the dojo yet?"

"I've seen one, with some kids in it."

"Pssh. Those little ones are _nothing_. Are you at all busy now?" he asked, a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Not until whenever dinner is, no. My friend is catching up with someone."

"Brilliant. How 'bout I give you a real tour?"

"…I suppose so," she accepted, wondering if Viper would ever return from whatever had taken him so unceremoniously away from her previously. "Viper seems unlikely to come back for me."

"Aww. You mean the big military dude? He's so scary: I saw him frogmarching some poor little kids around outside in the snow a week ago. One passed out and got hypothermia- he couldn't take it. Two of his fingers had to come off."

"Have you used that line on many other girls?" she quipped, wondering if Hugh knew the true scope of what Team Rocket were up to. In fact, now she realised it, she probably had no idea what she'd got herself into.

"Oh yeh. It works every time." He winked and motioned for her to follow him. "So, what brings you to this very strange place, if I may ask?"

He was being very gentlemanly, so she decided to humour him. "Basic Training, apparently, though all I've done so far is been dumped in the coffee room."

"I'm training here, too. Perhaps I could help you?"

"Only if you have the time." She insisted as they cut hard to the right, heading away from the façade of the White Room, into the rough-hewn corridors where real criminals are made. "Your own martial arts training is more important."

He shrugged. "I have to kick back sometimes, and part of testing my own knowledge is if I have the skill to teach others."

"Wise words." She agreed, stretching her tired limbs. "Are you here as an outsider, or…?"

A sudden guilt washed over Hugh's face, twisting his otherwise relaxed features to an uncomfortable tautness. "I… I agreed that if I could train under Sensei, I would pay back Team Rocket with my trainer's wages."

Annie supposed that was not particularly morally terrible. He wanted more than anything to be a gym trainer, and Team Rocket gave him a chance at his dream. Despite the dubious nature of the restitution he'd have to pay, Annie knew that he was a good person who was merely very driven, and perhaps she should not judge everyone she came across so harshly. Cynicism is not an attractive quality in a young woman.

"Here, come inside." He motioned with a large, warm hand, gesturing through an old-fashioned sliding door into a whole different era. The floor was covered in tatami matting, and the whole place looked like it had been airlifted out of a martial arts movie. "Isn't it so… strange?"

"Indeed." She muttered, feeling like she should take her shoes off when a man of about forty-five walked quietly in from an adjacent room, a towel around his shoulder and sweat lining his receding hairline. He saw Hugh and smiled softly, yawning before walking up to the two of them.

"Greetings. I am Sensei Hitoshi. It is good to meet you." She shook his hand, blanching at the thick layer of sweat on it. "Hugh-kun, did you find my son?"

"No, sensei. I'm sorry; he wasn't in the common room. I think Viper might have got him."

Hitoshi frowned for a second, but relaxed, his wrinkles flowing out of his face. "Perhaps that will do him good. We shall resume training, yes?"

"I thought that maybe you could show my friend what we do here. She's only just arrived."

He wheezed a chuckled, looking Annie's willowy frame over with a raised eyebrow. "Basic Trainer, yes?"

"Yes."

"You look it." Hitoshi said offhandedly, his eyes sparkling. "Not enough muscle on you to lift a wartortle, let alone a blastoise. I have my work cut out for me."

"Pardon?" she asked, confused. Why would she want to pick up pokémon, anyway?

"Well, come follow me. I will show you our methods." He padded through the door from which he had previously entered, shaking his head vigorously and pursing his lips. Annie, after a silent urge from Hugh, followed him as instructed and found herself with her toes brushing the padded matting of a large, traditional dojo. The floor was a neutral green, and the walls seemed to take on an encompassing beige that hinted at orange. Scrolls of ancient texts were set up intermittently, with displays of complicated moves and sets of flowing kicks and jabs placed between them.

Then her jaw dropped.

"Are you joking?" she gasped, at which Hugh chuckled. The back wall was bereft of scrolls, but instead lined with more weapons than you could shake a stick at. Sai, poleaxes, broadswords (who in there right mind would ever feel the need to use a _broadsword_?) and any conceivable device to inflict bodily harm. It was… exciting. Very exciting. And scary as shit, as well.

"No. Sensei runs the second highest ranked Dojo in all of Kanto, and the third in the world, after Chuck's gym in Cianwood City. Even getting permission to come up here is something amazing." Hugh grinned, his neat eyebrows rising into his forehead with suppressed glee.

"Stop talking!" Hitoshi yelled in his heavy accent across the room. "You! Annie! Watch as Hugh-kun and I spar!"

They leapt at each other with jarring speed, closing the metres between them in a blur of flurried movements, loud shouts crashing into existence and all too suddenly being swallowed by the walls. Annie skittered backwards as fists met blocks and legs wove between graceful body curls and ducking feints with roaring fervour, pulsing with each flex and contraction of perfect muscles; it was more a dance than a fight, raw strength contorted and honed into fine points of guarded prose. Newton's Third Law states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, and such was true of the master and his student. Hugh parried a vicious waist-high underarm punch, at the same time accepting the impact with tense knees and springing forward, his ankle twisting deftly around Hitoshi's shin and pushing him to the back left with a snapping heave. The older man recovered quickly, grabbing Hugh's gi and bringing both of them thudding to the floor in an organised tussle. Astoundingly, the pair continued with just as much grace as they had possessed standing, and Annie fell into awe at their bodies and the skill with which they carried them. It was beautiful, in the way that mountains in autumn are beautiful, in the way that the embers of a dying fire feel more striking than when the grate is truly ablaze.

"Hyuh!" With a massive grunt, Hitoshi seized a sliver of chance presented by Hugh's off-balanced stance and drove down hard, and with an almighty crash he skidded across the floor, defeated. "Uhn! You have been defeated, Hugh-kun!"

"Ow… yes, I have." He rubbed his thighs where Hitoshi had struck and stood up gingerly, a smile evening out his face. "Someday I will, sensei."

"Only when I am too old to walk!" he chuckled, patting Hugh on the back. "Did you enjoy that, Annie-san?"

"Wow… yes, I did. It was amazing." She flustered, quite taken aback. "How long does it take to get that good?"

Hugh pouted and flexed his muscles with a wink. "Years. Years and years and more bloody years."

"I have been training now for thirty-three years." Hitoshi said quietly, without boast. "And so shall I continue until my bones crumble and my eyes see not. This is what we martial artists pledge."

Annie was severely tempted to borrow Kaylee's slang and say 'shit me a sandshrew', but cussing felt inappropriate next to this man- this pillar of strength. Instead, she let out a barren 'just, wow' and looked at Hugh for support. He noticed her pleading gaze and chuckled.

"Thank you, sensei, but I think we might have shocked her a bit. She's only here for basic training with the Team, not life-long commitment."

"Still, no reason I can't have some fun." Hitoshi grinned. "Perhaps we should now take tea, yes? Before dinner, since it is so very cold nowadays."

He led them back away from the dojo, through the atrium and into a smaller room. A traditional heated table was the centrepiece, surrounded by cushions, with a small stove upon which a kettle was squatting sequestered in the corner. Hitoshi pulled out a small bag of tealeaves from hammerspace and set to work brewing herbal tea while Annie and Hugh blissfully tucked themselves under the blanket. Despite the building's powerful under-floor heating, the gusts and draughts where chilly as hell, and the standard Team Rocket uniform was not built for bitter, mountain temperatures.

"Here you are, children." Hitoshi presented them with a cup of tea each.

"Children? Hardly, _gramps_." Hugh stuck his tongue out hand cradled the tea in his hands.

"I don't know. I used to think I was pretty mature… now, since joining Team Rocket, I feel like a child in an amusement park."

"Team Rocket as an amusement park? It's not the analogy I'd have used, but whatever floats your bulbasaur."

Annie gave him a good-natured scowl while scalding herself politely on the pungent tea. "You know what I mean. Drink your tea."

They exchanged a charged look while Hitoshi frowned with his eyes closed, sitting in that uncomfortable sitting-on-your-calves position. Annie preferred cross-legged. "So, Annie-san… where are you from?"

"Between Lavender and the Rock Tunnel." She answered sullenly, having conveniently forgotten everything about it until now. And mum… what was going to happen to mum? "Not a terribly interesting place, I'm afraid."

"All places hold their own charm." Hitoshi said sagely, stroking his imaginary beard. "Cianwood, where I am from, is small and quaint, but possesses its own rugged beauty. I trust that the Sevii Islands are the same, Hugh-kun?"

"Kind of. We have a much more Johtonian climate down there, so I'd say similar to Cianwood."

"Why did you two come so far?" Annie asked, secretly wishing she'd asked for a coffee, milk, eight sugars instead of this vile drink. "I mean, just the distance is enough to put me off- I'd never gone further than Lavender in my life until this week."

"The search for strength could take me to the end of the world, and I'd still jump off the precipice." Hitoshi said, to which Hugh nodded vigorously. "Though for now I am enjoying being here. When I am not teaching, the mountains are a wonderful place to train and hone my body and mind."

"You don't have any problem with… the dubious nature of Team Rocket's dealings?" she asked.

Hitoshi closed his eyes, his brow furrowing into a craggy rock-face, like the very mountain environment he sought to embody. A minute passed, and he seemed in a sort of pain when he spoke again. "It is… the way of the world. For every hero, for each good deed, there is a villain who commits the opposite. The balance preserves itself, and I am not one to try and topple it."

His simplicity was admirable, really.

A bell chimed in the distance. "That's the meal bell. We must get going." Hugh pointed out, the conversation sticking like a burr to your favourite scarf in the backs of their throats. Annie felt uneasy, being presented with such an obvious, simple and perfectly viable truth. Morally ambiguous as she was, she'd never applied a higher order of thinking to her actions like this- the archetypal yin-yan idea. She decided, quickly, for they were leaving the sanctuary of the dojo, that this was something she could stow behind her eyes for another, harsher day.

Silence followed them doggedly, like a warden's growlithe almost, as the threesome traversed the endless corridors of the facility, content to be different and detached wholly from each other in the harsh reality outside their comparable pocket of clarity. Annie felt, for the first time since Kaylee had appeared on the other side of her door a week ago, lonely. Some fleeting glory had passed, and she saw through the foolish dreams and machinations to something that was, at its core, ugly. Who was she, to be here, of all places? She should be back in nowhere, chained to her sick mother, whittling her life away and returning, dutifully, every time she went to buy milk. Not this. Never this.

After a while, the closed passages expanded and grew brighter, some even possessing coveted windows. The view, of course, was breathtaking- possibly the only ethereal thing amongst the harsh truth that had settled around the Rockets like poisonpowder. It clung to their clothes, it fell into their hair- it got up their noses and caused them to sneeze occasionally as they realised, for a brief second, that they were dying from the inside. It was strange; Annie saw Kaylee as some kind of pinnacle of personal freedom, and yet the more she experienced it, the more trapped she became within herself. Introspection, generally, was something she had tried to avoid that inevitably caught up on her and led to such fateful soul-searching trips as the one to the power plant last week. Through the smattering of these and some more mundane thinking, she'd come to the conclusion that life just goes on: that there is no higher order, no god, no reason, just coincidence. Being here, seeing the variety of life presented before her- it seemed, for the first time, that perhaps she had been mistaken.

The refectory was two levels down from the dojo, which was itself one level up from the white room. She'd have to find a map at some point.

It was a large room, larger than the children's' dojo but smaller than the white room. There was nothing sleek or polished about it: the floors were linoleum, the walls were roughly painted and you could see the pipes against them. Stacks of trays and cutlery, adjacent to which were the serving counters, filled the far corner. Ambivalent-looking Rockets with aprons on served steaming food from behind them, and it seemed quite crowded. Annie had not realised how many people lived, operated or were staying at the Mountain Base.

"Come on, queue up or they'll run out of mac and cheese." Hugh darted around her, crossing the room and picking up his cutlery and tray before lining up for his food. It reminded her, again for an agonising second, of when she'd gone to school. Lavender's school was small and empty feeling, all of the teachers being retired men and women who'd clubbed together and created the small community secondary school. There was no college, unless you wanted to enrol yourself for a life commitment as a medium of the pokémon tower, guarding the spirits of dead pokémon. No thanks.

"Hugh?" She inquired as they shuffled balefully further towards the food. "Do you know where I'd find my friend, Kaylee?"

He shook his head. "Sorry, I don't know who that is. Is she a Rocket, too?"

"Yes."

"Then she might have taken early dinner- you're allowed to." He shifted his weight between his feet, his sandals squeaking on the floor. "Sorry, I've no clue."

"Thanks anyway. It's just that I haven't seen her in hours and I'm a bit lost without her. She's been through all this before, whereas I'm a novice."

"I know how it feels." He chuckled, the ochre lights that warmed the food spilling onto his face and lighting his smile up. "I spent four hours lost two floors below this, until I eventually found the girls' toilets… whoever that woman was, she was not happy with me."

They laughed together for a brief, forgetful moment.

"Mac 'n cheese, please." Hugh pointed at the writhing, bubbling mass of calories on the far right of the selection. Annie felt slightly ill- it wasn't that she was a particularly healthy eater, but her unfortunate lactose intolerance told her that there was simply no way that she'd be eating that. The chicken korma nestling next to it looked much more benign, so she asked the server nicely for that instead, heaped on a bed of rice. They broke from the line of hungering people and made for a table, having left Hitoshi to himself (he'd antisocially brought a sandwich from a refrigerated display somewhere opposite the hot food and vanished) and sat opposite each other.

The korma was hotter than she'd expected. She spluttered and groped for a glass of water that wasn't there as her throat burned, turning her face a particularly unflattering shade of puce.

"Are you alright?" Hugh looked up from his atheroma-on-a-plate, wide-eyed and amused. Annie made what she hoped was a gesture for water, choking as she did so. "Oh. Here, you should have got some."

She accepted the plastic cup he handed over and gulped it all down in two big swallows, slapping her hand on the table whilst finally being able to breathe again. "Ugh, I feel like I've swallowed a charmander."

"…Nice." Hugh raised an eyebrow, tucking back into his food. After another three shovelfuls, he stopped, swallowed and saw something noteworthy. "Ooh, I see Cobra, go ask him where Viper is."

"…Cobra?"

"Yeh, they named themselves after snakes for some reason. He'd the tall, thin guy with the bushy blonde hair, just talking to whoever that man is."

"Right. Thanks. I'll be right back." She got up, letting her glance linger accusingly on the korma for a second before snapping her eyes across the room. Cobra was obvious amongst the sea of middle-height twenty- and thirty- something Rockets, his afro sticking out like some kind of imitation sun above the cloud layer of black and brown. As she got closer, Annie noticed piercings on his lip and nose, one of his ears and his eyebrow (nice…), coupled with a thick pair of glasses on the end of his large nose. He was simply… outrageous.

"…Excuse me, sir?" She approached him, speaking as loud as she could. Cobra whirled around and saw her, a big grin splitting his face in two.

"Whell, howhdy, honey. What canna help you with?"

He had a gold tooth. Definitely not very drill sergeant -ish.

"Um, I was wondering where Sgt. Viper is?"

"It's six, he'll be swanning rround thee Tac room, prolly."

"… Where?"

"Thee Tactical Training room, pardone me." He tipped an imaginary hat at her. "Oh! I do say, korrma! Nice to talk to you- to talk to you, nice!"

He slithered off quicker than she could have imagined. What an odd man. Walking, quite dazed, back to where Hugh was finishing his meal with a piece of shortbread, she made a funny face and stuck her tongue out, saying as she got within earshot: "He's weird."

"No shit." He replied, picking an offensive raisin from his pudding. "Did you get anything?"

"I think so. Does 'Tactical Training Room' ring any bells?" Hugh scowled. "I'm guessing from that look that it does?"

He twirled his shortbread around atop his index finger and sighed. "Oh yes. I suppose we'd better get going. Chances are that he hasn't set up the lava jets or the quicksand pits yet."

"Pardon?"

"When I came here, Sensei suggested I spend some time in the Tac room to learn to react to any situation thrown my way. After the hornet attack, and the herd of tauros, and then the jigglypuff concert… I lost the will to live."

Could it be that bad? Annie remembered the climbing wall and shuddered. Maybe it was. Gulping, she managed to find a few forkfuls of plain rice sequestered beneath the korma and gave Hugh's shortbread an envious glance. "Right. It's just I have no idea where I'm meant to be, or where I'm sleeping or anything."

"Your guide friend doesn't sound so good." He commented with the minimum required tact. "Look, I'll come with you. Getting lost in here is a death sentence."

"Aww." She allowed, pleased with his chivalry. "Thank you."

"No problem. Any distraction." He winked, wiped his mouth and stood, leaving his tray for the presumably lesser beings to clear away. "And into the valley of Death rode the six hundred."

"Half a league onward." She added, impressed. Intellectual as well as fit. "Is that as appropriate as I fear?"

"Yes."

"Then perhaps we can go back to your dojo and drink disgusting tea instead?"

Hugh made a face. "Don't mention tea, not after my beautiful mac and cheese."

"Beautiful? It looked like a grimer had jumped into a vat of banana milkshake and simmered for a few years."

"Your korma looked like charmander poo. We can argue this as long as we want, but either way both of us will end up feeling slightly nauseous."

"Nice." She grumbled, trying to keep those images out of her head. "You're bigging this up, you know."

"I'm actually underplaying it. No jokes."

They passed through sliding doors into a much more clinical part of the complex, the bright wood fading into hard military stone. Hugh's _clip-clopping _scuffle of sandals hit the walls and bounced back at the two of them. There was no need for conversation- Hugh kept trying to hide the fact that his meal had made him start belching rather amusingly.

"Here. Good luck." He pressed the open button to a door and a red light flickered into existence above it.

"You're not coming in with me?"

"Into the Tac Room? Are you joking? You're on your own in there, sweetheart."

"Gee, thanks, _honey_." She sniped back, peering into the intensely lit sports-hall sixed room with wide eyes. Viper was on the far side, fiddling with some kind of control panel. "Hugh…"

"Stop whining." He pushed her in, her boots crossing the threshold with a strange hiss. Offering a cheery wave, he pressed the button again and the door slammed shut to the image of his wickedly grinning face.

"Hugh? Hugh! Hey, Hugh!" she pounded the door. With a groan and a snarl, she muttered some obscenities under her breath before turning to the hall.

It looked simple.

Click. Brrrr. Snap, click, snap- thud…

"Fuck."

With a flighty thought, Annie began to run, now all too familiar with the sound of hidden machinery starting yet another perilous situation. The hall was bigger than it looked. With a startled cry, Annie's feet met open air and she shot downwards with startling velocity, just managing to snap a hand to the edge of the pit, her body hitting the side with a painful thud. Groaning, she scrambled out of there, clutching her chest and remembering her burnt fingers and how much they throbbed now. But she still had to get to Viper, and he obviously wasn't letting her get there without a fight. An almighty sigh washed over her, and, by pure chance, Annie saw the next trap. The floor was arranged in hundreds of tiles, each slightly differently coloured, but the one next to her was slightly dislodged, showing a pressure-sensitive switch underneath. Stepping over it and more determined that ever to get all of this out of the way and go to bed, she broke into a jog, keeping her eyes on the tiles for any clues.

A jet of fire singed her ankle and she then decided to keep to the middle, because the flamethrowing tiles seemed to be confined to the edges. Never one to be daunted by third degree burns, Annie carried on, booted feet pounding on the erupting, quaking, disintegrating tiles, desperately dodging vine whips, water guns and on one occasion a large, very much life-ending rock that deployed from the ceiling. When she skidded to a halt in front of a pool of acid, a grimer jumped out and attached itself to her face, smothering her. She toppled backwards, spasming. It oozed over her, blocking out the light and the air, its putrid, sewer-ish stench invading all of her facial orifices. Clawing at it did no good- it was basically goo. This was stupid- it was just a pokémon. She could not fail now, not from a stupid grimer. But shit happens, and Annie happened to run out of oxygen at that moment, her fight ending unceremoniously near the end.

Zubat would not stand for this.

Without prompting, it escaped from its ball and launched a vicious attack on the offending grimer, buffeting the thing's slimey body halfway across the room. It was, after all, like Proton's golbat, massive and aggressive- a born survivor, and now it had been caught, fiercely loyal to Annie. It landed, its spindly legs bending at the knee to rest on her unmoving head, poking her curiously, wondering why she was so still. It decided, in its simplicity, that she must be sleeping and need waking up, so, as _any _helpful person would have done, it latched its large, pointed fangs onto her nose.

"OWWWWW!" Annie shrieked, bolting upright and taking a massive breath. "What the fuck!"

Zubat, recognising human rage, stayed a distance away while Annie got to her feet, tutting at the residue of grimer on her shirt. She saw him, clenched her nose and scowled with reluctant thanks, as a nice stream of blood was now dripping down her face. Zubat produce a toxin in their saliva that prevents blood clotting while they feed, and Annie knew she'd need to deal with that after she got through the course. Viper was close now, observing her with scrutiny, a clipboard perched on his head and a pencil balanced on his nose. Resolve strengthening, she sidestepped the acid pool, quelling memories of her dousing by the bikers' koffing, zubat having returned to her side. It felt comforting to have a pokémon beside her.

"Hurry up! I haven't all evening." Viper shouted at her, grinning big. "If fact, I reckon you need a little jolt of energy…"

He reached behind him and pressed a button, releasing several voltorb from the ceiling. They floated down, pulsing and crackling, eyes roaming the room. Annie, alarmed, began to manoeuvre out of their way, but they exploded, a massive blast throwing her like a rag doll against the wall. This triggered the flamethrowers, but zubat was smart enough to grab her collar in his teeth, yanking her from the fire. He was large, and had a greatly increased wingspan, allowing a short spurt of flight carrying her heavy human weight. Annie groaned, feeling winded and bruised, but stood after zubat let her down. There were about twenty metres between her and Viper- enough to probably kill her. Fun times.

"Smart bat you have! Let's see how it likes light!" he threw a pokéball. "Electabuzz, flash!"

Annie, having just managed to pull her cap over her face, staggered backwards, disorientated by the light reaching through her eyelids. Zubat gave a startled cry and fell, limp, the electromagnetic rays from the light having confused its sensitive receptors. Annie ducked and picked it up, thankful it was only disorientated. The flash faded and the fat, hulking electabuzz still stood before her, grinning. Behind it, Viper held up a small key on a keyring.

"If you want your room key, you'll have to get past my electabuzz!"

"No shit…" she growled, looking around. The room was in a state, with small fires dotted around, and the big rock that had almost killed her smack bang in the centre. Thoughts ran through her mind in quick succession, each failing to reach the winning criteria.

Something buzzed on her belt and she jumped, thinking that it was another one of the Tac room's tricks. It turned out to be her mobile phone. She picked up, much to Viper and his electabuzz's chagrin. "Hello?"

"_Annie? Hi, it's Kaylee. Where are you?_"

"Um, about to be fried by Viper's electabuzz. Why do you ask?"

"_Seriously? The Tac room then? Ack, I'm sorry, Jimmy piked my Nidorino and I've been trying to get it back all afternoon._"

Bored, Electabuzz howled and let out a jolt of electricity, enough to shock Annie. She nearly dropped her phone, but held on, gritting her teeth. "If you've any advice, now is the time to- ow! Shit!- give it!"

"_Think 'bout your types. I ain't allowed, Viper'd kill me if I helped. I'll call you back in a minute, we're near the front of the dinner queue…_"

The bitch hung up.

"OI! LESS PHONE, MORE FIGHT!" Viper yelled, a vein pulsing on his forehead. "OR WILL YOU CONCEDE NOW?"

"No!" she shouted back, looking desperately around (anywhere but where electabuzz was standing, electricity spluttering about his body) for any aid.

What had Kaylee said about types? Electric was weak versus ground…

There was a massive rock in the middle of the room. Duh.

"Zubat?" she poked the startled, weakened pokémon experimentally. "If you can break that rock up into little pieces with your wing attack and fling them at electabuzz, I promise you that you can have as much blood as you want."

It screeched happily, seemingly happy to ignore the first bit and biting into Annie's wrist. "Fuck off! Not _now_, stupid!"

She flapped her arm about until it got the message and flew off, gathering strength in its wings and, with a massive gust of wind and a bit of stealthy supersonic in there somewhere, launched an attack at the boulder. Annie now remembered that she was between a rock and a hard place (well, the rock and Viper, anyway) and dived out of the way just as a hail of boulder fragments whizzed past her at electabuzz. It tried to dodge (it really did) but was pelted everywhere conceivable by its weakness. Flung backwards, the poor thing slammed into the far way next to Viper, bruised and bleeding, thoroughly beaten. It was over so quickly.

Zubat flapped over to sit on her shoulder, quite pleased with itself. "There, done."

Viper chuckled. "Alright, I guess you earned this." He tossed her the room key. "Good show. You need to work on fitness, but your technique and strategy are, as Kaylee said, excellent. We'll make a Rocket of you yet."

"Joy." She caught it in both hands, with the strange feeling that if she dropped it the floor would swallow it up. "Was that all really necessary?"

"Kinda. I wanted to see what you had, so I set up this course over the afternoon while you grabbed a boyfriend, knowing you'd eventually end up here." He winked and gave her a hearty slap on the shoulder. "You might want to get some medical attention. It's just next door- I have to tidy up here."

Looking at the carnage and detritus, Annie supposed he did. "Well… thanks, I suppose?"

"Just doing my job." He bade her goodbye and recalled his Electabuzz, tutting to himself about removing the rock next time. He never would, though. Team Rocket needed everyone they could get and everyone they could get had to get through Basic Training, one way or another. It couldn't be made too hard. Oh, the lies we tell.

The full brunt of the stress she'd put her body under during that brief flight of physicality hit Annie three steps out of the door. Her chest was going to explode; her eyes ached and teared up from the flash, her face stung from grimer's acrid touch. The amount of lactic acid from anaerobic respiration in her body must have far exceeded recommended levels. She really, really wanted to sleep.

Tottering towards the hospital bay, she practically ripped the door handle off and staggered inside- it smelled of antiseptic, vomit and biscuits, though those last two could be connected. Seven beds lined each side of a sterile room, with a small desk on the left next to which was a door into the pharmacy area. The nurse on duty, a stout, redheaded woman, saw Annie, cocked an eyebrow at her state of disarray and, with a disproportionate sigh, stood up. It seemed to take her a great deal of effort. "Sit down on the chair, then." She motioned to a doctor's chair opposite. "Every time, that man insists on harming them so… younger and younger… idiocy…" Annie caught as the nurse pulled supplies, salves, pills and ointments from the pharmacy room next door. She reappeared, quite laden, and assessed Annie with her eyes. "Shoes and shirt off, please."

Obeying quietly, Annie pulled her shirt over her head with difficulty, because her chest ached so much. Bruises were already beginning to appear, peppering her torso and stomach.

"Right, lets staunch the bleeding first. Zubat, I'm guessing? Anti-toxin, check… bandages… enough lost for a transfusion? I hope not. Just some fluid and some rest, yes. Bruises… cream ought to deal with that… eyedrops…" she muttered everything she was doing out loud as she pottered around, applying stinging solutions. Annie baulked at the needle and brought out to saw up the large cuts that zubat had made in her nose and wrist, but didn't move. Whilst the nurse worked, Annie idly wondered now many more scars she'd have in her future, at this rate. She'd have to find Kaylee and ask to see hers.

Speaking of Kaylee… Annie found her phone and called her, waiting patiently as the dial tone reminded her that she was unimportant.

"_Hello?_" a voice came through the other end.

"Yo, Kaylee. I finished the Tac course."

"_Seriously? Well done. You're in the nurse's room now, I'd suppose?_"

"Having myself sewn shut, yes. You could have warned me." Annie complained with a wince as Sister Pain sutured her skin. "I've noticed a correlation between hanging out with you and inexorably losing parts of my body."

"_Shit happens_. _I'll be there faster than a Pikachu has sex._"

Right… beep, call ended. Annie was going to have to find a stress ball soon. Or someone to hit, repeatedly. Or, as everyone else seemed to already have, take up chain-smoking and drug abuse. She couldn't decide which.

"There you go. Don't let that man tell you to do anything stupid until you heal. Alright?"

"Thank you." She responded in a wispy, token way, overcome by the sudden urge for a window. Gingerly stepping down from the chair-bed-exam-table thing, she nodded at the nurse, accepted a small fortune in painkillers and was unceremoniously shoved out of the door. Kaylee rounded the corner just as this happened, seeing Annie and completing the distance between them in a blink of the eye. Or it could just be tiredness. Whichever, Annie was glad to see her.

"You little prodigy, you." She enveloped Annie in a gentle hug, smelling, surprisingly, not of cigarettes. It was a vast improvement. "Viper now thinks the sun shines outta your arse, y'know. Fuck me a farfetch'd, you look like shit warmed over."

"I feel like shit still frozen," Annie replied, handing her medicine over to Kaylee who held out her hands, willing to carry it. "I just want to shower and sleep."

"And miss the nightlife?"

"The night is not meant for life. It's meant for sleep and being blissfully unaware that tomorrow is going to be just as shit as yesterday."

Kaylee stuck out her tongue. "Party-pooper. I suppose you're allowed, though, seeing as it's the first night." She slipped a hand dangerously deep into Annie's skirt pocket and pulled out the room key Viper had given her.

"Watch your hands!" Annie blushed, slapping her away. "Or at least warn me when you're going to fish around for stuff near my genitals."

"Well..." The older Rocket winked in response. "I can't promise. That shade of puce suits you. Room 312, okay, that isn't too far. Might even have a window, if it's where I reckon. Ohhhh, shit me, I need a fag."

"Not in my room you don't."

Kaylee made some mock-pleading faces before flaring her nostrils dramatically and smiling broadly, showing Annie down the endless labyrinthine corridors of the complex. The wide passages gave way to small, slim hallways with numbered rooms spread intermittently across them. 308, 310… 312, complete with a rusty keyhole.

"You know it has a window if there's rust. See? Air causes rust, so only rooms with windows have rusty keyholes. Get me?"

Kaylee's confidence in her chemistry was nice, although the truth of her claim was questionable, so Annie decided to leave it alone for now. They door was opened after some fiddling with the lock and the room behind was revealed. It was of medium size, with a single bed, desk, wardrobe and sofa. Annie went over to the cupboards above the desk and found inside them a kettle, teabags, coffee, the usual hotel sort of arrangement. The desk had a few books piled on top of it, and it looked as though someone had vacated this space fairly recently- a pair of socks hung on the radiator. The promised window was grotty but serviceable, with a view out to the west of the mountains over into Johto. Annie idly wondered if she looked hard enough, she'd see Orre. Probably not, because a thin mist had settled that obscured any views.

The fresh air was nice, though. She took greedy breaths of it, savouring the sharp taste of water vapour in her throat. Kaylee did too.

"Nice." She commented, chucking the meds onto the table and then planting herself firmly on the messily made bed, yawning. "Not Celdon Hotel kind of style, but homey. Mine's bigger, though. Wish I had a window."

"You can come in here to use the window if you want. Just don't smoke." Annie laid down the rules as she sorted things into cupboards, being the tidy little person she was. "Seriously, Kaylee."

"Aight, aight miss moody-pants." She grumbled, tussling her hair.

"Can you take your boots off? You're getting snowy mud on my bed."

"If you want 'em off, you takin' 'em off."

"And have to touch your feet?" Annie asked jokingly. "Not even a mew would be worth that."

Kaylee, pretending to be offended, made a heartbreak motion with her hands and stuck her feet out. Annie reluctantly pulled her shoes off, putting them by the door. "So… what'd'ya think?"

"Of what?"

"Of this, dumbarse." She motioned with her arms to include everything around them. "Of us."

Annie paused and collected her thoughts. "I like it. It's exciting, although painful sometimes. Everything's on such a big scale that I'm always awed."

Kaylee chuckled and, despite Annie's protests, lit up. "I suppose it seems like that. I'm glad, though; I've been missing female company for ages."

"I've noticed there are more men than women here." Annie scowled at the spiral of smoke that was pulled out of the window.

"I'm _sure_ you've noticed the men here." Kaylee raised her eyebrows. "Mr. Karate kid?"

"Shush. He was nice enough to show me around when you and Viper ran off."

"I was seeing Jimmy. 'Takes precedent over everything, even you, babe."

"Why? Who exactly is he? Viper wouldn't tell me."

With a frown, Kaylee stubbed out her cigarette and ran her fingers through her greasy hair again. "I rescued Jim from a fire in his house when he was a baby. He's like my little brother."

"Why do you look so sad, then?"

"… I killed his parents."


	7. Chapter 7

Thank you again to Storyteller of Darkness for reviewing and all who alerted!

* * *

Chapter Seven

* * *

Snow is an exceptionally beautiful thing; it covers our imperfections with a clean coat of glittering innocence. It is the symbol of winter, an otherwise dour season that revels in the death of the trees, the old and the very young. And still, we almost create an utterly spurious idyll of what snow is like.

Snow is cold; thick sheets of treacherous ice underpin snow. Snow kills in the most discriminatory fashion. But still, the snow is beautiful.

Annie considered very few things to truly be worthy of 'beauty'. Having been brought up in an ugly part of the world, she saw the underside of everything, the imperfections, before she stopped and considered it wholly. In her mind, every pretty thing had a side of it that nullified its majesty: for instance, Raf, the most beautiful boy she'd met, was horrible inside. Kaylee, seemingly a pillar of strength and freedom, was a tormented murderer behind her eyes. The sparkling, toothy smile of young Jimmy destroyed her inside every time they shared a hug, every time she begged the powers that be to extend their time of blissful lies just a second longer. It may have been heartbreaking.

For the first time, Annie didn't mind the thick cloud of smoke hovering in her room, nor the stains on the floor or the rumpling on the bed sheets. All her teenage life, she'd cared for her mum, fed her, clothed her, and tried in vain to pretend she was still sane, but that was out of duty, out of desperate childhood. She had never actually cared so much about anyone before, and it was a feeling that settled in her stomach like a stone. Kaylee was upset, and despite their relatively new friendship, Annie felt the desire to comfort her. So she did, and this consequentially was how she found herself the next morning, also- lying on her bed, pyjama-clad, with a snoring Kaylee clutched tightly to her chest. She needn't remember everything that had been said; it had been a flood of almost incomprehensible wails and grievances, of whispered dreams and morals lost to the ebb and flow of life.

As carefully as she could, Annie slipped out from beneath the covers and stretched, wincing as her injuries protested violently. A shower was in order, so she grabbed a change of clothes- the wardrobe was thankfully stocked with marked training gear in one-size-pretty-much-fits-all, don't-complain.

There was no ensuite, but she was used to that anyway. Down the hall, the bathroom was marked by the soft cloud of steam leaking from under the door and the garbled singing resonating through the woodwork. The clock on the wall told Annie that it was before six (and so, additionally, did the utter lack of light from outside.), so she reasoned that the singer must be an early riser. Easing the door open, she felt the warm, cloying air wrap around her and heat her brittle bones, whisking some of the morning lethargy away. As the singer- now definitely male, by the sound of his gorgeous yet slightly distorted tenor, continued oblivious to her entry behind a dark red curtain, Annie set to work ridding herself of the grime that had accumulated over the time she'd been cavorting over the countryside, nearly getting killed and all that jazz. It was, as you'd expect, a sizeable amount.

The singer reached the climax of his song while Annie scrubbed away her past, ready to begin anew with a clean coat. She washed her hair; surprised at how long it had gotten- she'd have to cut it lest it get in the way of some ludicrous training exercise that Viper had planned. The hot water was tempting to stay under, but grudgingly she turned it off, wrapped a towel around herself and stepped out into the main portion of the changing room, hoping that the singer had left.

He hadn't, and he was Hugh, concealed only by a very small towel wrapped around his waist.

They saw each other and blushed in that way that the young do: full of unspoken emotion.

"Anni-"

"Hugh-"

"You first."

"No, you."

The awkwardness was tangible. Hugh, in the end, spoke. "Early riser?"

"When there's someone hogging the duvet, yes." Annie pouted, feeling chilly again. "Off training?"

"Yeh. Sorry for leaving yesterday- Sensei called."

"It's alright."

He fidgeted with the tie in his towel. "You look pretty beat up. Viper get to you?"

"You could say that," she replied, looking very hard at his eyebrows and not as his bare, muscled chest. "Well, I'd better be going. People to do, things to see."

They sniggered at her malapropism briefly. "Of course," he agreed, "I'll see you around? Maybe we can get lunch."

"If Viper hasn't dismembered me by midday, sure."

"I'll text you."

She raised an eyebrow. "You have my number?"

"I have my ways." He touched his nose slyly, and then realised that he was naked and it was getting colder. "See you."

"Same."

It was over very quickly, with Hugh slipping out of the bathroom without actually getting changed. Team Rocket seemed to apply a sort of anything goes policy to relationships and sexual integration- everything, save lavatories, seemed to be communal and gender-neutral. Annie hadn't met many men in her life, and of that handful she'd only ever actually enjoyed the company of two- her father, Alec, and now Hugh. She thought to add Dean to the list, too, at some point. But not Raf; never Raf.

Once back in her room, dressed, refreshed and feeling slightly less flustered, she thought to wake Kaylee, who would hopefully know what she was meant to be doing today, but when she did gather the courage to poke her lax, sleeping face, her hand was slapped out of the way, and Kaylee turned over and continued to snore, but louder. Exasperated, Annie clipped her zubat and phone to her belt and left in search of breakfast.

Despite several wrong turns, a close shave involving an air vent and the fabled girls' bathroom on B3F, Annie made it to the canteen at ten to seven, feeling rather pleased with herself and definitely hungry enough for a hearty breakfast. The Rockets weren't really early birds- a mixture of cleaning staff, martial artists (luckily not including Hugh), and several other un-uniformed personnel ate their daily bread and chattered in low voices amongst themselves. Aware of how alone she was, Annie took her cutlery and tray, finding a table several minutes later at which she sat. Bran flakes, scrambled eggs and hash browns were just some of the foodstuffs that found themselves in her digestive system some time afterwards, followed by a cup of black coffee and a carton of apple juice. A working breakfast, for, Annie supposed, a working woman. It was strange to think such- that she no longer went to school and was, for all intents and purposes, employed. This chain of thought led her to wonder about pay, and what she'd spend it on. She didn't really have hobbies, but supposed she might need a place to live, and clothes, just like Kaylee had said. A familiar pang of directionless angst flared up, something that the bright lights of her new life had hidden for quite a while now. It was painful, but familiar- a tie to her old life, something to be both revered and looked down upon, for Annie Cooper was no longer a meek girl lost in the world. She must have a purpose, a cause to an effect, whatever it may be.

After eating, Annie found the odd Cobra scarfing down sausages like the world was going to end and asked him whom she should report to.

"Ye doon't hava skedoole?" he asked through a mouthful of pork. "Gimme five minoots, aye'll take ye te see 'im meself."

Annie was now sure that his accent had changed since last time. He must affect it… but why? Perhaps he was just a very odd man. Luckily, he did, as promised, finish his feast, wipe his hands on the poor man next to him and hop out of the canteen, with Annie following him at a jog. His long legs were an advantage in the sprawling corridors. They stopped shortly outside a big, polished slidey door, upon which 'Sgt. Viper, Overseer of Training' was embossed.

"Here ye're." Cobra tipped his hat to her as the door began to open. "Ye look like yer father."

"Excuse me?" Annie replied quickly, head snapping from the office to him. "You knew my father?"

He looked surprised. "Knew 'im? Lass, who didn't?"

"That's enough, Cobra." Viper's voice cut into Annie's next question. "Bringing up Alec will only upset her. Or get her hopes up." He glanced at her. "We knew Alec, but who in the crime world didn't? As my compadre said, he was infamous."

She accepted it for the cover-up it was, but her gaze lingered uneasily on Cobra, who was smirking slightly as he turned away. Viper nearly manhandled her into his office, looking grumpy. "Sit, sit." He gestured to a hard-looking chair opposite his desk, which was laden with papers. "So, now you start for real. Basic Training is tough, but it's short and sweet. Two weeks, in and out, you have everything you need to know to an utterly basic level. Depending on your rank, you'll learn things in greater detail later. But for now, we teach you how to steal and not get caught; how to fight a pokémon battle and win, no matter how outmatched you are.

"Throw away your morals now, Annie. This is the real world- there is no reset button, no option to save your game and continue later. Life comes thick and fast, and my job is to get you ready for that. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, let me find your schedule… ah, here- no, that's my dry-cleaning bill… Argos catalogue… 20 percent discount at… ooh, here." He handed a rumpled piece of paper over to her. Annie looked it over quickly, eyebrows rising.

_Cooper, Annabel_

_7:30 Drill (White Room)_

_8:30 Unassisted Combat (Dojo)_

_10:30 Theory (Classroom A2)_

_12:30 Lunch_

_1:30 Tactical Training (Tactical Training Room)_

_5:00 Visit to the Nurse (Nurse's office)_

_Dinner follows._

"This looks… relaxing." She murmured, feeling herself ache already. "Thank you."

"No problem. You have drill with me in ten minutes, so why don't you stay and chat?" He felt his hair to make sure it was impeccably spiked.

"All right." She untensed herself, leaning back in the chair and looking at him. He obviously wanted to talk about something. "What do you want to chat about, sir?"

He took out a sheaf of paper from one of his desk drawers and threw it at her. "Between you and me, Annie, I know how hard it is to lose a parent, or even two. Are you… coping?"

She shrugged. "Dad left so long ago I hardly remember him. You lot seem to, though." It was almost an accusation, but Viper let it slide. "And as for mum…" A pang of regret throbbed and dispersed in her chest. "Mum was dying anyway. I'd just have run myself out trying to postpone it."

"I see." He said quietly, drumming his fingers on the table. "In that file is everything we know about you. There are some blanks, and I'd like you to fill them in for us, if you could."

He pulled out a pen and handed it to her. Annie took it, put it behind her ear and took the sheaf of papers onto her lap and read through them. Copies of her birth certificate, school enrolment forms, even her shopping lists had been scanned and filed into it. However, there were gaps, fields that hadn't been filled out, boxes without crosses or ticks. They didn't know that she was lactose intolerant, so she wrote that. It was when she flipped over the page that she realised what they were actually trying to get out of her.

All the questions were about Alec. They were obvious in the way that a zigzagoon instead of a vibrator is obvious- quite obviously obvious. It was an unashamed ask, and Annie was unsure how she felt about it. Sure, she could answer some of these questions, but did she want to? Why were they so keen to know about Alec if, as they had said, he was infamous anyway? It didn't make any sense.

"What can I tell you that you don't already know?" She asked shortly, looking up into Viper's uncertain eyes. "And why would you need this information, anyway?"

"I'm not at liberty to-"

"Bullshit!" She jumped to her feet, more angry than she'd ever been. "He's _my _father, and anything you know about him is _my _business!"

"Calm down, An-"

"Ten years!" she cried, close to tears. "I need to know!"

With a slow, heavy sigh, Viper motioned for her to sit down, his brow furrowed. Surprised at her outburst, Annie shakily sat, taking a couple of deep breaths. From a locked drawer, he pulled a single, faded sheet of paper. "Here. It isn't pretty."

Annie took it in trembling fingers. It was a missing person report filed by Viridian City Constabulary. Staring at her with a sort of roughish charm that reminded her of Raf, was her father, a little older than the photos she had of him, which would put him in his early thirties. His auburn hair was worn long- messy to his chin, and his dark eyes pierced through the paper into hers. It was as though he was looking directly at her, urging her to understand, taunting her to figure out what had happened.

"He went missing six years ago on a very important mission for Team Rocket- four years, I understand, after he left you and your mother. The most important mission to date, you could say it was. Vanished- no trace, no note, nothing. Took what he was meant to be transporting and disappeared irrevocably off the face of the earth, Annie."

"Do you… do you know what happened?" she asked slowly, staring at him as though rediscovering his existence on that piece of paper. "Is he dead?"

"We have no idea. Nobody has any idea- all that everyone who has been in Team Rocket for any length of time knows is that without what he took, we're at a technological dead end in our most important set of research. That is why Alec is so infamous- he has the key to our future."

Annie was suddenly important. "And you think that I may somehow know where he is?"

"That was our hope, yes. It isn't exactly co-incidence that you're here. Well, the lower-downs haven't been briefed, but we sent Crew 5 to Lavender for a reason. Kaylee checked your house, but there wasn't anything to indicate where he'd gone, though he certainly hasn't been back since. She took you with her out of impulse- we didn't really consider you an asset, because you were so young when he left. But, I hoped…"

He made an empty gesture at the file she was filling out. "It could help us find him, Annie. If he's alive. Wouldn't you like to see him again?"

* * *

Mist slid in whorls and eddies over the mountain ground; the rest of the world, more than three inches from where she was pressed against the windowpane, was thankfully obscured. It didn't stop Annie thinking about where her father could be, though. Painful emotions pinged from her chest to her fingertips, fogging the cold glass where they pulsed hot with anger, and loss. The strangeness of everything began to crush Annie where she stood, by her room's god-given window, and she almost cried. Almost.

The door creaked open and shut quickly, but from the way the entrant walked, softly and without pretence, she knew it was Kaylee. The knowledge of her presence pulled some more defined emotions out of the spinning cloud around her: anger, betrayal and self-doubt. But there was also an underpinning current of trust, of warm kindness, of familiarity, something she tried to ignore after knowing what Kaylee was really doing at her house, 'coming back for her'.

She didn't look back at her.

Surprisingly, Kaylee didn't start talking (Kaylee liked talking), but instead enveloped Annie in a hug. A proper hug, not the patronising, drunken embrace she'd offered on the first night they'd met. If Annie hadn't been such a sensible person, she would have sworn she could feet regret and apologies radiating from the soft arms encircling her. She wanted to pull away, to be angry and naïve and heroic- but the truth of the matter was (to call a spade a spade) that she really wasn't the important one here. Alec was, and always would be. Was he to Kaylee? She'd joined after he'd vanished, of course. Perhaps she was just doing her job. Perhaps, just perhaps, she actually cared. It made Annie's heart jump slightly, to think and have some sort of proof that for the first time, someone had put her first, even though it wasn't their duty.

"I-"

"Shhh." Kaylee implored quietly, her head in the crook of Annie's right shoulder. "Just, shhh."

And so they stayed like that, and Annie, not of her own fault but due to the somehow expanded permissible freedom of Kaylee's presence, began to cry. She cried for herself; for her father's departure, for her mother's madness, for her own betrayal. For Jared, who had killed himself to rise again as Proton, an uncertain merge between himself and his dreams. For Kaylee, for once she had realised how little of her she knew, and what must brood inside her. For everyone she'd ever known, and the useless and fleeting nature of their association.

This, of course, all took place after a long day in which Annie had begun her basic training, the ability of humans to relegate emotions to the backs of their minds while being presented with physical or mental tasks being astounding. All day she'd endeavoured to forget Viper's words, a result of which was that she remembered them all the more keenly. It may be of your interest to note that she trained with Sensei Hitoshi and Hugh in the dojo that day, in addition to drill with Cobra and Viper- which, in many respects was hilarious because she had it with the class of 'holiday-campers'- the second generation, who were ridiculously more adept at it than her. Theory was just that- the application of strategy and laws to problems including both solo work and work with pokémon. The woman who taught this, a tiny, wispy wraith of a human with hair that seemed to radiate from her head as though the wind had blown it that way one blustery day and it had refused to return to normal, had promised that explosives were on the syllabus tomorrow. Having met some of her fellow trainees, Annie did not think this was safe. The Tac Room, was, as usual, the Tac Room, a label which needs no accompanying explanation.

Which brings us to now.

"I'd say sorry," Kaylee broke the pact of silence herself. "But it wouldn't do much."

"Yeh." Annie grumbled in response, turning herself in Kaylee's grip so that they were face to face. "How did you find out?"

"You were going to discover it sooner or later. I saw Viper looking guilty and put two and two together."

"Why didn't you tell me yourself?" Annie asked, not annoyed, but wondering. In response, Kaylee pulled a cigarette from the pack in her pocket and inserted it slowly into Annie's mouth, looking as though the task was supposed to mean something. She was tempted to spit it out, to reject the life that Kaylee lived, but chose instead to accept the gift. Signs of affection were difficult to give when you were a girl- a hug, the holding of a hand, all of these appeared somewhat superficial if you were trying to get across a deeper feeling. She assumed, and perhaps understood, that this was an invitation, a test of the waters between them. And eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.

A life for a life.

"I'll tell you what I'm thinking," she began, hands trembling on her lighter, "If you tell me what you're thinking."

"Why would you want to know what I think?" Annie breathed, speech slightly muddled from the obstruction in her mouth. "Who am I to you?"

Kaylee's eyes seemed, for a brief second, to flutter with anticipation, with a faraway ambition before settling back on the present. "You're Annie. My friend." Then, almost reverently, she flicked the lighter, the small flame spluttering into life, and bought it to the end of the cigarette, letting it catch.

"Is that all?" she asked in reply.

"Does it matter?"

"If we're going to be honest, yes, it does." Annie took a languid drag, thinking that it tasted better than it smelled. "At least, it does to me."

With a reluctant sigh, Kaylee seemed to grapple with herself for a fleeting second before answering. "Aight. Tell-all, you and me, yeh?"

She offered her little finger, and without pause, Annie hooked it in with her own, feeling like she'd signed up for something more insidious than it appeared, but trusting Kaylee. If she couldn't trust anyone, she'd turn out bitter and friendless, so now was as good a time as any to start. "Okay. You start."

"Now?"

"Why not?" Annie urged, feeling the need to widen the distance between them. "I'm not doing anything."

Kaylee's eyes flitted to the window and back. "Aight." Then, as if to reassure herself of her decision, she repeated the word. "Aight."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

* * *

The wall was not a welcome friend to meet, particularly not at eight forty-two in the morning, and not when sores and bruises remained from the last 3 days already. Still, Annie got to her feet, strands of her brown hair clinging to her face with sweat. And this was just the warm-up.

Hitoshi was an excellent teacher, and she was lucky enough to not only have his undivided attention, but Hugh's as well. They played good-cop, bad-cop with her; Hitoshi pushed hard, made her work for it, and then Hugh stepped in with a bottle of water, a kind word and a tip to improve. They weren't teaching her anything particularly complicated- basic self-defence and a few slightly dirtier tricks. The general idea of the solo training was to disable a trainer before he could reach his pokéballs, or, to knock him out cold. Team Rocket weren't particularly keen on killing people (It tended to end messily), but would if the benefit outweighed the cost. Grunts were trained only to knock people unconscious by themselves- their pokémon were the ones that killed for them.

"Annie, try to reign in your movements a bit." Hugh advised, patting her on the back and she got ready to practice the drill again. She was currently trying to grab the empty pokéballs that Hitoshi had tied around his waist. First, they'd tried getting the whole belt, which required often a knife or very, very nimble fingers, the former they didn't trust her with, and the latter she didn't possess to begin with. So the idea was to try and grab one or more of the opponent's pokémon.

Annie started the drill again, lunging off her front foot, straight for Hitoshi. He had two balls on each side, and research told them that when attacked, trainers would attempt to dodge to the side upon which they keep their strongest pokémon. So, Hitoshi tensed and decided to shield his left, so Annie thrust her right foot out, just beyond his left leg, and then with a contortion of her stomach muscles reversed the flow of her movement and pivoted so that she was back to back with him, snapping her left arm out to where he was shielding and managing to grab one of Hitoshi's pokéballs.

The problem was that she had too much momentum and overbalanced, careening off the mat and into the wall, just as she had last time. At least she had the ball, which was an improvement.

"Umph." She grunted, smacking into the padded wall again. "I hate you, Hugh."

"I was just giving advice!" he replied incredulously, helping her up. "But you got one of Sensei's balls this time." He kind of realised how that had sounded and hastily corrected himself. "One of his pokéballs."

"If I aimed badly, the former is quite possible." She tittered, accepting a proffered drink of water and wiping her mouth. "Though I think Sensei would kill me before I got anywhere near."

"That I would." Hitoshi grinned, beckoning. "Now, we have a long time left until you must leave… try now to get two out of four."

* * *

"And how," asked Doris, the Theory tutor, whilst pacing from one grey wall of her 'classroom' to another, "Would I get onto the roof of a glass building?"

"Take the stairs." Annie grumbled, sore as shit.

"I don't find that amusing, miss Cooper." The crone replied. "I have two weeks to instil into you the basics of thievery, and you are wasting my valuable time."

"You promised bombs!"

"You cannot plant a bomb until you can successfully reach the place at which it should be planted!" She seemed to swell whilst shouting this. "Now, how would I get into the roof of a glass building?"

"Fly."

* * *

The rest was history, to be honest. Two weeks passed in a blur for Annie, accompanied by a novel-worthy cast of teachers, friends and people she saw from the corners of her eyes and passed in corridors but never spoke to. Kaylee stayed by her side for most of it, acting as a confidante, whilst spending the rest of the time with Jimmy, with whom she was absolutely besotted. It was both ironic and heartbreaking to see them together. We could have spoken at length about the different exercises that she did, the different meals she ate, or the many conversations she indulged in with various individuals during that fortnight, however it would really have been a waste of both of our times.

Instead, for the sake of brevity, the scene now involves Annie, Kaylee, Jimmy and Hugh sitting at a table in the refectory, tucking into their supper on day fourteen of the time in which Annie had been here.

"Pass the salt." Jimmy demanded, sticking out his tiny hands.

"Salt's bad for you." Said Kaylee absentmindedly, chasing a forkful of peas around her plate.

"So is smoking, and you do it," he grumbled. "Pass the salt, _please_?"

"Here." Hugh handed it over to him with a good-natured smile and a wink. "A growing boy needs his salt."

"Exactly!" Jimmy triumphantly acknowledged, sprinkling it over his chips. "Can you be my big brother instead of Kaylee?"

Hugh chuckled, taking a sip of his drink. "I'm not sure she'd like that."

Kaylee looked at the two of them dangerously from below her eyelashes, eyebrows raised in strict tolerance but said nothing.

"Oh, that reminds me!" Hugh suddenly sat up straight and stared at Annie, looking both excited and crestfallen at the same time. "Sensei asked me if you'd come to see him later."

"Why? And how does that remind you?"

"Don't question the machinations of a genius's mind." He replied, winking. "I've no idea, he just mentioned it before I came down for dinner."

"You kung-fu types seem to enjoy pissing about with people." Kaylee noted tactlessly. "You can't face that there's no mystery left in the world anymore."

Frowning, Hugh stabbed wildly at a sardine. "You're wrong. There are things we still don't understand."

"What?" She challenged him; their eyes meeting expectantly like two trainers before a battle. "Name me something, wise boy."

Hugh flinched slightly at her sarcasm, but Annie was more concerned with Kaylee's twitching hand beneath the table, that couldn't seem to decide whether she wanted to unleash her sandslash or not. Out of something that may have been embarrassment, or newfound confidence borne of the shift in their relationship over the two weeks, Annie gently placed her hand over Kaylee's, steadying the quiver of anger. Kaylee shot a quizzical glance sideways at her, but Annie just shook her head- it made the point either way.

Hugh, despite being lovely and cuddly, was still a man, and therefore must beleaguer his point until we agree with him. "Ourselves. I doubt you know the first thing about who you really are."

"And you do?" she shot back, a couple of strands of hair falling from her loose ponytail into her face, giving the impression that she was declining into a familiar pattern of the type that, before Annie had entered her life, was the normal routine of her life. "Don't be so high and mighty, karate kid."

"I'm not. At least I care about my body and my mind."

"You'll still die in the end." She replied with an air of sagely nihilism. "Listen, Hugh, don't get on your fucking high horse around here. You ain't got no right, selling your soul to the Boss, just like the rest of us. You never leave Team Rocket." With a grin, and to make a point, perhaps, she lit up a cigarette and glanced at Annie. "Unless you're Alec fucking Cooper, of course."

It was only then that Annie thought to look at Jimmy. He was looking down, staring with intent at his own sardines, his forehead creased with worry and some sort of guilty anger that a six-year-old boy shouldn't have. She did feel sorry for him, really.

"I'm full." Hugh said through clenched teeth, standing up quicker than was necessary. "I'll see you at your graduation tomorrow, Annie."

"Yeh." She said to thin air, seeing as though he was gone faster than she could say the single syllable. "Oh-kay…"

"I know you like him and all, but he's a feckless twat." Kaylee mentioned, setting her fork down and flicking ash into her empty cup. "He doesn't realise anything about the shit he's got himself into."

"What shit has he got himself into?"

"He's sold his soul to the Boss. All his life, whenever he's in the position to help us out, he'll be made to. And if he doesn't…" she made an obvious gesture. "Well, Boss doesn't kill for shits and giggles, but at the same time, the one thing we hate is turncoats. We can't let him squeal, so any news we get of him going to the polies, he's swimming with the magikarp."

Annie gulped. She rather liked Hugh and wasn't keen to see him dead any time soon. "Nice. But he won't right?"

"If he knows his shit, he'll keep his nose out of the trough. Wouldn't want him up for the abattoir, would we?"

She shivered, noticing the feverish glint in Kaylee's eyes, and had no doubt that if the opportunity and means were given to her, she'd gladly play butcher to that extended metaphor. Annie was torn and quite worried- she honestly trusted and liked Kaylee, but by no means wanted her and Hugh to come to blows, and couldn't decide who was to blame for their icy exchange.

"Right, let's get shitfaced." Kaylee stood. "I'll see you tomorrow, Jim?"

"Yeh." He smiled weakly, excusing himself from the table.

"Sorry, what was that?" Annie asked, only having heard the second bit (so immersed was she in the way that the industrial lighting refracted inside her jelly), while she walked to the washing-up counter with Kaylee, watching Jimmy slip out of the room guiltily.

"Old-time fun. You're still a fucking Softy, and I've been lazy ind- indic- wassat word for teaching in a pushy way?"

"Indoctrinating."

"Yeh, I've been lazy indoctrinating you. You ain't losing anymore of your teenagehood dusting the house and waiting to become an adult." She grinned, but her eyes were sad. "Welcome to the twilight of your life, Annie. It's all downhill from here."

* * *

"Hah, fuck, fuck- shit, oh god…" Annie laid in the snow, the stars zooming towards her, limbs heavy and warm, the yellow belt half-lost underneath the cool white beside her. Kaylee rolled over onto her, spliff pinched between her fingers, bottle of vodka dropped into the snow. "Shit, Kaylee, they're gonna hit me!"

"Shut up, Softy," Kaylee giggled, backblowing the sweet smoke into Annie's lungs, staring deep inside her glassy, dilated pupils. They were outside, a little way from the back door of the main building, Kaylee having suddenly acquired the urge to be outdoors. Their breaths billowed out in clouds of tiny, icy crystals, lit brilliant silver by the waxing moon that stood sentinel above the trees.

"Fuck, fuck-" Annie said again, clutching Kaylee's arm, lax grin painting her face dumb. "Oh. They stopped."

"Of course they stopped, silly." Kaylee rubbed her nose affectionately, only half-conscious of their proximity. "They were never going in the first place."

"Aren't-" Annie stopped, screwing up her face as though the very act of thinking was difficult in this state, "-aren't stars the spirits of dead pokémon?"

"Is the tower in Lavender full of fucking stars?"

"No…"

"Then they ain't, honey." Kaylee cooed, wrapping herself around Annie, head nestled in the crook of her shoulder. "I can't feel anything."

"I think it's cold, but I dunno." Annie shifted slightly under Kaylee's weight, taking careless lungfuls of weed, wisps escaping towards the falling stars through her scalded nostrils, homage to the death of a younger girl. "Are you okay?"

"I hope so."

"That makes no sense…"

"We're pissed, shit doesn't have to make sense." She replied, a murmur from below Annie's ear. "We have to go back tomorrow."

"Do you want to?"

The soft feeling of tiny kisses against Annie's jawline gave her the wordless answer. "Kaylee-"

"Shut the fuck up." She muttered, beginning to move slowly against Annie's body, pushing her into the snow, asserting her control. Her fingers gripped anywhere they could reach, pulling the two of them painfully close. "Let me, Annie."

"Kaylee, I don't-"

"FUCKING LET ME!" she roared, her eyes wide with madness, right hand tangled in Annie's hair, proud and taut and quivering, lips parted a millimetre to allow an upwards waterfall of mist that melted away as it met the steamy light radiating out of her eyes. Annie understood- as much as she could, given her state of mind, that this was not a common occurrence, and if she was (though she doubted she could) to push Kaylee off, she'd break some sort of rule, a code of fellowship and the promise of each to destroy themselves and the other as prodigiously as possible. It was painful; everything was painful, numbed only by the knowledge that perhaps tomorrow, maybe when the sun rises on the same world, it'll at least look different. Annie cared for Kaylee, but when she looked up into her eyes she didn't see the sweet girl who had hugged her and made her better two weeks earlier, nor the kind, strong vagabond who'd ripped her out of the wallpaper of Kanto and into the spotlight. All she saw was a lost, confused, abandoned child who couldn't come to terms with her lot in life, lost momentarily in a familiar madness.

Frozen fingertips brushed up her stomach, pushing her dark top over her head quickly, fervently, grasping for flesh, for tangibility, for reason. Annie allowed her, only flinching slightly as the cold snow touched her back. Kaylee shucked her boots off and tugged at her skirt, pulling at it roughly, before lunging down upon her conquest, her character of the day, her friend, however distant the concept seemed. It was clumsy but practiced, fumbling and graceful, cold and boiling hot. The smell of pot lingered in the air, a clear haze of the relinquishing of responsibility, and the earth hummed as though the mountain was aware of what they were doing. Soon, breaths came in jagged puffs, movements were spasms between long, drawn out writhes, and heavy with progression and empty like the thin air around them.

From nowhere came a jolt, and then another, until all that Annie had the resolve to look at were the blurry imprints of the stars, which now seemed to be receding. Kaylee panted and groaned above her, eyes half-angry, half-unsatisfied, but it all pointed to the fact that she was trying to prove something, trying to scrape the remnants of some old, tired ideal from the bottom of the jar.

"Fuck!" It came out before Annie could stop it, so caught was she in picking apart Kaylee's brain that she forgot the physical side of the act. Her body enjoyed it- of course it did- and she couldn't deny that it was a very strange, very new experience, though one she'd have preferred to have a different way, with someone who wasn't so… pained. "Sh-sh-a-ah…ah!"

"That's _fucking_ right," Kaylee breathed, grunting with the effort. "You _fucking _love it, don't you? We're all just sluts waiting to _fucking _happen, ain't we, Annie?" She doubled her efforts, fire in her eyes. "This is all there is."

Did she really believe that? Annie asked the silence that hid underneath the hot coils of vapour, before her mind went blank, her body exploded and the stars finally vanished from sight.


	9. Chapter 9

Apologies again for the wait, but my mobile internet provider is O2 and ya'll know how much shit they stirred recently with their age restriction thingy (and happens to be a restricted site, so meh)

Here is my next offering to you, fillerish, but it ties up the training arc nicely so we can move on to the real shit. And some character development, I think.

* * *

Chapter Nine

* * *

"I trust you are most tired," Hitoshi smiled with his eyes, the previous evening, while placing another cup of delicious (the lie was a small but grotesque one) tea on the low table before taking a seat himself. "Basic Training here is… ah- what is the phrase? 'No picnic'?"

"That's right." Annie screwed up her eyes, held her nose and swallowed a gulp of grimer- sorry, no, 'tea'. "Why did you want to see me, Sensei?"

"Ah- I have something for you." He pulled something out of his sleeve, and handed her the yellow belt of a novice martial artist. "I train many people each year, Annie Cooper- more people have passed through the dojo since I have been here than you have known personally in your life. They are… interesting, but often very similar. They have big plans involving themselves, the gaining of wealth, of power, of notoriety. You aren't like that."

Annie snorted. "Only because before a fortnight ago, I cared about nothing."

Hitoshi grinned, looking straight at her, seeming for the first time very old and wise. It was a façade. "I do not believe that. You must have cared for your father."

"Please don't bring him up." Feeling suddenly exhausted, Annie ran a hand through her hair. "All I've heard from the Rockets since I got here was Alec this, Alec that… so much for my individual value."

"Annie?"

"Yes."

"May I give you a piece of advice?"

She considered him warily. "Go on…"

He leaned over the table and took her hands in his, as if the gesture made the words more important. "Revenge is never a reason."

Dumfounded, Annie cocked her head to the side. "A reason for what?"

"For anything." He said, voice soft. "I have trained all my life to understand myself, and I have come to recognise traits in people. It may sound silly, but under your indifference and naïveté, I see horror, like the opening jaws of a Gyarados to a tiny goldeen. There is something in you that you have received from Alec, and it is not a blessing."

"You all speak about him like you _know_ him!" Annie gritted her teeth, feeling lost and angry, "_Everyone _seems to intimately know my _fucking_ father except _me_!"

"Annie, calm-"

She shot up, knocking the table and causing tea to spill down the sides, dripping onto the fluffy blanket that surrounded it. "If you have just asked me here to tell me what to think- what to do- how to go about my business with my father- then I'm leaving."

"I cannot lie, Annie, it was my intention before you left to warn you." He sighed and shook his head. "The young are never inclined to listen. Ask Kaylee, if you will. Leave, and the next time we meet, you will remember my words. You will remember them very, very keenly, Annie Cooper."

Disconcerted, she brushed past him on the way out, silence ringing in her ears, yellow belt clutched in her fist. She slid the door open and closed, turning.

Kaylee stood against the opposite wall, bottle of vodka and bag of weed swinging from her hands, face warped into a smirk that made it clear that she had heard every word that was said through the thin rice-paper door. "Care to indulge, my darling?"

* * *

She woke without, surprisingly, the headache she had been expecting. The ground- or rather, the bed- below her was soft, though it smelt of musk. Opening her eyes, Annie saw the telltale yellow-orange bottle of a super potion gleaming on the bedside table (which explained the lack of hangover- that shit really worked miracles, even on humans). Grunting and sitting up, her body wasted no time in reminding her _exactly_ what had transpired the night before, a wave of fragmented images and sensations smacking into her like standing in front of the magnet train. Propping herself up on her elbow and pushing her hair out of her face, Annie noticed that she was in her own room, wearing her own pyjamas, which was most certainly not where she'd passed out last night.

Standing, the warm ends of her toes protesting at the cold floor, Annie stretched, pleased to note that everything was where it should be (Hugh's story of the kid who lost his fingers from hypothermia had worried her) and, not from personal strength or endeavour to forget everything that had ever happened in her whole life but sheer unconscious habit, she scooped up her toiletries and a towel and made her way to the bathroom for a shower. A hot shower. A long, hot, reflective shower.

But alas, this was not meant to be.

Just as Annie was padding towards a cubicle, the door to the bathroom swung open. Hugh, dressed in only pyjama trousers, towel over his arm, stumbled in, looking thoroughly tired. He had a layer of stubble on his chin and a rim of red around his eyes. Their gazes met, and Annie felt guilty to her core.

"Did you sleep alright?" He asked, voice gravelly. "You looked pretty roughed up when I found you last night."

"You found me?"

"You and Kaylee, yes." His face softened. "I was so worried about you, after Sensei told me what happened."

Red flashed behind Annie's eyes, but she subdued it. "Did you… carry me back to my room, then?"

"Of course. You passed out in the snow. You'd have caught your death."

He knew.

He looked at Annie with eyes that _knew. _Disappointed eyes. She opened and closed her mouth, not quite sure what to say to him, shame burning her cheeks. Annie knew what she'd done, and the circumstances under which she'd done it, but that didn't change anything. She still felt as though she'd betrayed him. Not that there was anything but friendship to betray between them, but at times it had felt like more. The potential for more, at the very least.

"Thank you." Was all she could find for him? "How is Kaylee?"

His nose scrunched up at her name. "I took her inside, if that's what you mean."

"To her room?"

"No." She looked up at him with wide, worried eyes. "She's inside. And warm. She wasn't my priority, Annie… you were."

His face was pleading, willing her to understand him. Could she accept this? For it was surely an invitation, brazenly given in the morning after's desperate light. "I have to go find her, Hugh."

Crestfallen, he nodded. "Of course. I'll see you later."

Annie could swear that as she ran, he started crying.

* * *

The White Room was, as ever, dazzling in the mid-morning sun as it crested the cloud layer, creating a blinding glare. Folding chairs had been dragged up from the adjoining storage room and laid out in neat rows, facing a hastily erected dais upon which stood a lectern. The attendance was reasonable, though it looked as though some people had been corralled instead of come of their own accord. Many of the 'graduating' Rockets had made friends while they'd been here.

Annie stood against the left wall (left in you were looking in from outside) with the hundred and something other people who'd done their basic training. They were a bunch. She'd seen them, and even had some in her classes. A few names drifted dangerously near her consciousness- Devon, the stocky man in his thirties with a slightly receding hairline. They'd exchanged recruitment stories. He'd had an idyllic childhood- gone on his pokémon journey, taken on the league. He'd managed the quarterfinals, but had lost to a girl who was a heavy water-trainer. The two of them had gone on to marry and have two children, buy a small house in Cerulean, where his wife worked as a gym trainer and he as an engineer. He'd gotten bored of it, and had longed for the glory days, back when he hadn't a care in the world. Team Rocket had been glad to get him (he had a full team of powerful pokémon), and he was on an accelerated program due to his experience.

Annie felt sort of sorry for his wife and kids.

Further along the line was a woman in her forties. Tall and slim, she radiated calm and managed to look svelte and chic in her uniform. She'd been a high-powered secretary for the Celadon Department Store and had set up a massive money-laundering scheme that had conned the company that ran the store out of millions of dollars before being approached by Team Rocket. Annie felt somewhat plebeian compared to such criminals.

Viper was stood in his best military blues, adjusting the microphones on the lectern. This obviously happened quite often, because the speech in his hand was laminated and looked much perused. The muzak that was being piped around the room stopped and the chatter amongst the audience fell to silence shortly afterwards. The microphone gave a squeak of feedback before Viper's deep, rumbling voice began to reverberate around the room.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is, as always, my pleasure to welcome you all to Team Rocket's Autumn Graduation ceremony. Four times a year we induct a new wave of talented, dedicated criminals into our ranks. It is safe to say that this quarter's offering does not disappoint me." He smiled, the words spilling out of his mouth like he'd said them a thousand times. He probably had. "It is my honour now to personally induct each new member into our ranks. As their names are called, perhaps we can think about how Team Rocket can continue to prosper in the coming years with their help."

He cleared his throat. Cobra, who had been loitering behind him, also in his best blues, caught his cue and picked up a large box. Viper gave him a nod and began to read off names.

"Andrews, Steven." Was the first name. Alphabetical, Annie mused, both annoyed and slightly relieved that she was near the beginning. Steven Andrews was a man only slightly older than her, with slightly messy hair and a wiry body. He nervously stepped forward, walking up to the dais. Viper shook his hand and gave him a thick envelope that came out of the box with his name on it. The ordeal was over in about half a minute. Annie exhaled in relief. She hated being in the spotlight.

'Ashtan, Benvolio' was a swarthy Sinnohian chap, followed several names after by 'Attowrth, Claudia', who had too much make-up on, who preceded 'Baines, Jeremy', who skittered back to his place as 'Bedden, Graham' was being called up. About twenty or so people collected their envelopes and withstood their handshakes before Annie was called.

"Cooper, Annabel." The applause seemed to thin out a bit. A nest of ekans began to write in Annie's stomach, and she was frozen to the spot. Viper's eyes found her in the line and locked with hers, pulling her forward. She stepped out of the masses, barely registering anything. She felt the audience to her left, judging her, their gazes searching her body, looking for something she didn't have. They looked at her and saw Alec. She was sure. Step. Step. The applause had all but died. The stairs up to the dais were miles high.

Lub-dub. Lub-dub. The heart sounds were loud in Annie's ears. Her mind snapped back four years. Thirteen. It was raining. Fat slaps of water hit the window of the classroom, dripping down the panes and obscuring the forlorn world from the children within. The teacher, an old man- they were all old in Lavender- was drawing a heart on the board. Lub-dub, he said, was the noise it made. The valves closed. The valves opened. Why did she care? The lead of her pencil broke. It left a smear of graphite on the page. Fleeting snatches of a lost life. Lub-dub. The envelope was pressed into her hand. Lub-dub. Chairs scraped back as the lesson ended. Lub-dub.

"Annie." Viper's voice was faraway. She wrenched herself back from the past, two blurred images coming together to resolve the drill sergeant. She blinked several times in quick succession. "Good luck."

Terrified, she nodded and looked around the room. Everyone was staring, their beady eyes glittering in the sunlight. They accused her of not being who she was supposed to. They deplored her weakness. They _knew _her.

The line swallowed her into their black-uniformed depths, like a wall giving way to a battering ram. The air went in, and then out. Annie exhaled louder than she'd intended, drawing stares. The others all knew what she was- a sham. Paranoia gripped her behind the throbbing remnants of the headache that Hugh's super potion hadn't quite killed. With white knuckles, she clutched the envelope, looking down at the industrial label that proclaimed her name in sixteen-point type. It was as if her whole life had culminated into that brown package.

More people went up to graduate. The Ds, the Ts, one by one the scum of the whole world smiled and took their commission to be evil. The clapping recommenced, albeit slightly less enthusiastically, and everything slowly collapsed back to normal. Annie felt disconcerted; aware suddenly that she'd had some sort of psychotic episode. That wasn't a memory. That was a nightmare, and she'd been awake. The present and past blurred. She felt shaky, jittery, like she'd just seen a ghost.

It ended. "Thank you all for coming." Viper said once the last man (Zediah, Dorcan), had stepped back into line. "You have all been given a new calling. A new passion. For some of you, it's a career. For others, a livelihood. But for all, I can honestly say that it will be a time you'll never forget. Team Rocket is an organisation, but we're also a family. A network of friends, of colleagues. We'll be with you all as long as you live. Once a Rocket, always a Rocket."

The clapping nearly covered the sinister threat in his words.

The ceremony came to a close, and the graduates made beelines for their friends and their group of associates. They'd be going back to Saffron on the train after lunch with Annie and Kaylee, who'd actually missed the main contingent going up (the course was three weeks, but Annie had been given a few extra timetabled sessions to make up for the ones she not been present for). Annie stood, bewildered for a brief second, before she saw two people. The first was Kaylee, looking bafflingly fresh. She must have lathered herself in hyper potion, and indeed her skin did have that not-quite-natural sheen that pokémon often had after being pampered. Her hair had managed finally to lose that off-pink colour it had been dyed when Annie had met her, revealing that it was dark blonde.

The second was Hugh. His whole body looked as though he ached inside. He hadn't changed out of his gi, and just stood there as though it was his last chance. It was that blasted crossroads again. Paths diverged in a wood. They indeed made all the difference, this time.

Whereas Hugh was standing, asking, Kaylee was a taker. She pushed through the crowd, grinning, pulling little Jimmy behind her. "Ahoy there, grunt."

"That's the measure of my worth?"

"Just about." She gave Annie a quick, scant hug, a lingering distance hanging between them, just enough to feel, not enough to note. "When do you graduate, little man?"

Jimmy smiled and replied enthusiastically, "Well, it's sixteen. But since I live here, and not in a house in the city, maybe they'll let me earlier. I dunno."

"You'll make the best Rocket in the world, Jim." Kaylee ruffled his hair affectionately. "And 'sides, you know that you can always come and live with me when you're old enough for school."

He snorted. "You're never at your flat."

"True. But I've got a pretty out 'n about job at the moment. Once I'm old enough to look suspicious, I'm sure they'll make me settle down."

Annie's eyes flittered in the direction of where Hugh hadn't moved. "I'll meet you in the refectory for lunch, yeh?"

Kaylee looked quizzically at her, and then followed her fixed gaze to Hugh. "Ah. The Karate Kid looks like he might drill fuckin' holes through you. I'll leave you two to simmer."

They left, Jimmy reprimanding Kaylee for swearing. It was an amusing reversal. Sighing, Annie pulled a strand of her slightly damp hair behind her ear and managed to move from the spot she'd rooted herself to. The closer she got, the thicker the air seemed to get.

"Annie." He breathed, a small smile brightening his face.

"Hugh."

He flailed around for some words. "I suppose you'll be going soon?"

"After lunch." She confirmed. "What're you doing?"

"Well, I'm about halfway through my training for my fourth dan. My pokémon need more training too. After that, I'm going to go to Saffron, and I'm going to join the gym."

"So how much longer are you here?"

"Probably another six months, maybe a bit longer." His eyes slipped into the future and back, and his smile grew. "Then my life begins for real."

"The last twenty years weren't enough for you?"

"Nah." He chuckled. "So, I suppose lunch is out of the question?"

Annie bit her lip. "You and Kaylee don't exactly get on. Sorry."

"It's fine. I suppose this is the last I'll see of you for a while then?"

"Probably, yeh."

The silence stretched between them for a moment. "Then it's goodbye."

They fit nicely into a chaste hug, which lingered past its normal passage. Annie's head rested in the crook of Hugh's shoulder. He smelled of mint body wash, the type that hung heavily around the corridor having seeped out of the bathroom in the early hours of the morning. It was a peaceful smell. "Hugh?"

"Hmm?" He mumbled, coming apart from her slightly and answering her question with his quizzical eyes.

"Good luck."

It wasn't what she'd wanted to say, but it was what came out. With a slight hesitation shining behind his fixed stare, Hugh leant forward and softly kissed her.

It was over before it began, but it rang in her ears with a strange synaesthesia that clung to the air around them. "Good luck, Annie."

He disappeared into the crowd, leaving an unfamiliar void inside her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

* * *

The light pulsated as Annie reached towards it while the world meshed into a whirling vortex in her peripheral vision, receding, throbbing, a thick whorl of colour washing in and out, real and unreal, coaxing thin strands of fixed reason around in the air. The intense heat gently insisted upon wrapping her in its arms, a soft firecracker fizzling on her bare skin where it showed. Sensations drifted in and out, some heavy and pulling her limbs down towards the dark floor, others blowing her about like she were just a leaf on the spring breeze. Muttered whispers filtered through the shimmering barrier of golden stars, sometimes loud, other times just nothing, a long, total silence that engulfed her and made it hard to breathe, lungs a void of air that hollowed out her being.

Had it been a dream?

As though she'd been drifting below the surface of the water for a long time, a wave suddenly crested and palled, leaving a slick coat of water that condensed into beads and slowly trickled down the sides of her face, bringing the world into startling clarity. Of course. This was the end. Annie's eyes flickered back into life and she silently resented the feeling of lethargy that anchored her body to the ground. Concerned, blurry faces looked down on her as the jarring movement slowed to a soft _chud-chud_, bringing life closer with each passing second.

She remembered the whole thing.

* * *

The cold air slapped Annie in the face as she breached the exit of the tunnel, shuffling behind the rest of them. Even though she'd only left the severe beauty of the White Room, the squat utilitarian refectory, the calming, northern pine-wood walls of her room behind a few minutes ago, the sensory explosion that they'd been to her a fortnight ago was already stirring into a mulch beneath her feet like the brownish snow, trodden into slush by the lines of Rocket-issue, uniform boots. It was only the solitary figure of Hugh that she couldn't shake from her mind, his deep-thinking brown eyes, soft like butter, his easy smile. She wasn't in love with him. Love was too strong a word, perhaps, but it still left some bleary hole inside her to know him gone.

The winter had worsened whilst Annie had been shut inside the warm facility- even on the mountains, north as north could be, the Scully Peaks seemed to have turned in on themselves like selfish volcanoes, hoarding heat within their rocks and allowing Jack Frost to paw at their outer shells with his icy fingers. The snow stood up to Annie's knees, soaking through the tracksuit trousers she'd had the sense to slip on underneath her skirt to ward of the chill hand of winter. The trees drooped with it, sagged as though they were old women; weary of their burden- they barely spared an accusatory glance at the moving-creatures that meandered past them, migrating to warmer reaches. They'd wait it out. They always did, after all.

Once they'd unearthed the heavily snowed-under manhole that led down to the train station, the Rockets began to slowly slip down under the mountain's sodden crust, man after woman after man. Truly they were migrating to the south, Annie mused, like you saw the foreign birds do on nature programmes on telly. What were they called? Taillow. That was it. Pidgey were a little hardier, adapted to the cold Kanto winters.

When her turn came, she felt everything come full circle, remembering the day she'd exploded from the very same manhole into the white wonderland. Since then she'd gotten used to the sheer volume of snow up here, but it was still a little sad to let it go. Dropping down onto the gravel, she was whisked rather roughly onto the train, which now had several carriages to accommodate the increased volume of passengers. Grabbing Kaylee's hand to avoid spending the long journey alone (or worse, next to a large, scary bald man with tufts of orange nose-hair who'd got free seats either side of him (she sarcastically wondered why)), they picked their way down the aisle, finally finding two seats next to each other and settling down. Kaylee fished the ratty blankets back from the overhead compartments and they double-covered themselves, warding off the cold and the rest of the world.

Annie fell asleep, and that's when it began.

* * *

_The air has a brittle feel to it, although the night is thick and hot and heavy with city smog. The tang of haematite in the air is so characteristic of Pewter City. We slink through the suburbs, eyes flittering this way and that, glinting in the lash of moonlight that manages to reflect off them from where they pierce they shadows beneath our brims. Houses pass, left and right, perfect beacons of the life we threw away. There's one in particular- we all know why we're here, after all. They haven't been careful enough. We always find them out in the end. The memory within a memory of furtive faces hiding around corners as we dug, looking for those blasted fossils. Mister and Missis, they were, the two of them, investigating us. They got out of their depth, and told the polies. That's when we got the page from the Boss. They gotta go._

_The folk here are hard, yes, but within their rocky shells they're plush and complacent- we know that. They don't expect us to be so brazen. We heft the cans from our backs and begin dousing the house while, as a preventative measure, a little bit of sleepy-time gas goes into the master bedroom window. The man snores. All is wonderful for a few brief seconds as they lie, bathed in moonlight, matching in their ignorance. We're done downstairs, so we congregate in the living room. The television is new, and the instruction manual is left open at page 113. We're all soaked in paraffin, too, but we're young and reckless and immortal. _

_Something rips, and tears in the fabric of the room. I blink, bringing the lighter up in front of me. This is where it begins. This is where I begin, where I differentiate myself to increase the pain. The cigarette catches, and I nod to my crew before we let it drop onto the sopping carpet._

_The world disappears._

_We laugh, we frolic in the flames, we dance like mad elf-children in fairy tales. When it gets hot, we leave. I stay. I'm the maddest. I want to die. My eyes are wide and red and running with salty smoke and the cruelty of insanity. My clothes catch. It burns. I can feel it licking at my body, reborn like a phoenix from the ashes…_

_A cry pierces the fun._

_I turn my head, treading through the brilliant vermillion house, goddess, invincible, saviour, all sorts of wondrous things. Up the stairs as they fall into dust behind me, pausing to watch the sleeping bodies devoured by the hungry flames. The neighbours are waking up. They'll have smelled the smoke, I suppose. The cry, again, from the room we didn't acknowledge. It's cold in here. The window is open. A child lies in a cot, the first wisps of cruel fumes reaching its nose. I don't think. I take it in my arms and jump the window, because I cannot hurt myself, really. It's only three metres to the ground, and the grass is soft and heavy with a damp summer, so I only crack a couple of ribs. We reform again and stare at the baby. Why on earth have I taken it? It doesn't belong to me. I suppose that's what we do._

_Later, light stains the sky red and gold with blood and fire. Congratulations. I take the picture of the two corpses in my charcoal-black fingers. He's smiling, his arm around her as they squint because the sun is in their eyes, but the sky is brilliant blue behind them. Mister and Missis. I keep it in my pocket. Their little boy need never know._

_His name, says his romper suit, is Jimmy._

* * *

That had been the dream; only it mustn't have really been purely subconscious fantasy, because it was too real. Annie noticed they'd stopped moving as she recounted it. Kaylee sat beside her although everyone else had since filed out.

"Welcome back." She said, hoarsely. "Sorry you feel so rough. We had to crack out the opiates. You were thrashing about like a magikarp on speed."

"Huh?" She sat up, feeling the dullness in her limbs. "What?"

"We couldn't wake you. You had a seizure."

It didn't all connect.

"Really?"

"'Reckon so." Kaylee smiled. Annie, struck by her dream- her fit, seizure, memory, whatever it had been- looked into her eyes. They were blue. Below them, as she'd noticed back in the hospital years and years ago, and even you could say beyond them, behind them, anywhere but inside them, was something else. Some_one_ else. Could she trust the psychosis she'd felt while occupying Kaylee's body (because it must have been Kaylee) in the dream? She was mad. Had been mad, perhaps. She'd danced herself to cinders in that house. Her mind wasn't as she painted it. Trust crumbled. It was, she realized, the same thing she'd seen last night, together in the snow. The fire may have burned, but Annie felt nothing but chilled to the core now. "We should scram. I don't fancy a second longer with them lot." She inclined her head to the burly workmen.

Agreeing, Annie pulled herself up using the seat beside her, her bones leaden. They stumbled off onto the underground platform, the wind somehow making its way down and blowing debris and leaves about, coaxing the occasional crisp packet or candy wrapper from its resting place to skitter across the dull concrete, borne on the breeze. It was a laborious task, because Annie felt very infirm and wasn't inclined to hurry her pace. If there was anything she'd learned, it was selfishness and the joys and privileges it could bring.

"WHEYY!" someone launched into her as soon as she exited the station and was within the Rocket HQ maze. "Aw, man, we missed you guys!"

"G-good to see you too?" Annie eased out of the rib-cracking hug to see that the gang was all there- Raf (who'd shaved), standing taut and bursting with energy like a kid who hadn't been given his Ritalin, today sporting a pair of uniform overalls splattered with paint and muck tied at his waist, exposing his gymnast's physique underneath a white tank top. Behind him, Dean was dressed similarly, paintbrush perched behind his ear, and grinning like the blissfully ordinary boy he was. Even Jordan had turned up, his two stripes gleaming in the dull blue light. He looked tired.

"You two become smeargles suddenly?" Kaylee fell straight into the easy flow of chatter and walking. Annie admired her- she herself felt unsure of how she stood with them, until Dean, from the corner of his observant, silent eyes noticed her lagging behind and dropped back to walk alongside.

"They're not exactly great at the welcome backs, huh?" he joked.

She shrugged. "You can't have everything."

Chuckling, he agreed, and then asked "How did it go?"

"All right, I suppose. It was more of a holiday from reality than anything else. It felt so… ethereal."

He didn't know what that meant, but her wistful look gave it away. "Well, life'll be a bit more restful down here. At least until we're off on ops again. We're lying low after the convention."

"I remember that. Did you get the, uh- recap mechs working?"

"Nop." He grinned. "We had to do it old-style. I wrangled a kangashkan to the ground while this distressed couple looked on. It was crazy."

You know, Annie could imagine that. Dean was a down-to-earth, brawn-before-brain kind of guy. She wondered why he'd ended up here. Raf, in front of them, started cartwheeling along the ground.

"You're right!" Raf suddenly stopped, whirling around to face them. "I fucking agree! Let's get our shit on. I've done jack-all since the raid- oi, Jordoc, is anything planned?"

"Not that I know of." He said stiffly.

"Let's fucking do something then! Only so much painting I can take, innit? I'm no artist."

"You're doing a valuable service."

"Repainting the mechanics wing is a _valuable _service? The only valuable service you'll get 'round here is from the coke machines."

"If you don't like it, I can put you on domestics?" Jordan asked smartly, eyebrows rising into his fringe, enjoying the look that was perhaps a mix of hatred, horror and jealousy on Raf's face, tempered by the slightly crazy smile pulling the corners of his mouth up. Jordan didn't have to do much grunt work. Sure, he wasn't an exec yet, but he was on his way, and therefore worried about different things. Annie imagined that Raf didn't worry about much at all.

"I suggest a night on the town." Raf continued, oblivious to the slight threat in Jordan's stare. "Yeh. Tonight. I'm skint, though- Kaylee?"

"I've got a bit left from the extra over my last paycheck, but it has to last until November." She said.

"Dean?"

He shook his head. "My rent just went out, sorry."

"Grr." Raf stroked his chin where an imaginary beard would sit. "Jordoc?"

"You can fuck off?" He replied incredulously.

"What? We know you got a fucking raise. I bet you have a bonus too. C'mon, spare some alms for the penniless?" he even got down on his knees to beg comically.

"No."

"Bet you're saving for your pension already. Sad git." Raf kicked him in the shin for good measure on the way back up. "I don't suppose you've been paid yet, Annie?"

She baulked as eyes turned to her. "I- I've no idea. I think my contract said every twentieth of the month?"

"Aw, crap it's only the fourteenth." He growled, and then his face lit up as though he'd solved some quantum mechanical equation. "Well fuck me. What the hell are we doing?"

"Dunno." Dean ventured, inquisitively.

"We're fucking _criminals_, tossers!" he said emphatically, turning to them and gesticulating wildly. "Since when did we need to _earn _our money?"

"Since nightclubs charged admission?"

"C'mon." he grabbed Annie and Dean by the hands and skipped down the corridor, singing 'What shall we do with the drunken trainer?' at the top of his voice. They jerkily hopped and staggered along, pulled behind him. Dean turned to Annie, tripping over his own feet and just managing to stay standing, and made an apologetic face.

"He's had a bit of Amphy." He told her. Annie looked at him puzzled until he mouthed 'drugs' before being whisked around the corner.

They stopped abruptly when Raf skidded to a halt in front of a lift. Behind them, Jordan and Kaylee came jogging along, rolling their eyes while Raf pressed the button with his nose and stroked Dean's short fuzz of hair. They bundled in the enclosed space, Annie instinctively holding her skirt down even though she was wearing trousers underneath and smiling to herself. It hadn't been long at all since then, at all, but it seemed a lifetime away, as though she'd been a caterpie when she'd first arrived, had spent two weeks as a metapod in the mountain facility and was now blossoming into a butterfree. Elation bubbled into her chest, the sense of excitement that had been quelled by her horrific dream resurfacing stronger than ever.

Emerging onto yet another featureless corridor, the group split up. Raf was deemed not in any state to meet an exec and Kaylee volunteered to take care of him. Jordan went off, citing the need to 'do important things', to which Raf made a rude gesture involving a penis and his right hand before making owl noises and wandering off. Dean was left with Annie, and took her to see the exec on duty. She was pleased that he revealed that Proton was currently in charge of their Saffron city HQ, and that the other three executive managers (the really really executive executives) were elsewhere. Even if it was worth shit, she liked having known him before all this. A link to her past was a blessing and a curse- she couldn't look at him without secretly yearning for her old home, for Lavender and the soft, unimportant passing of time, despite how the tedium had sickened her; however she knew deep down inside of her, where the heat welled up behind her ribcage when strong emotions struck her- anger, love, anything crippling- that behind his cruel apathy, Proton would forever be, if only a little bit, the Jared she'd known.

Would Annie herself ever be free of the past?

It was a depressing thought. She let it slide down the side of her brain to nestle inside of her skull, just above her right ear. The present demanded her attention, as much as she'd have liked to fester in the past.

"Come in!" Proton's door has been repainted with a silver sheen, probably by all the rockets who seemed to be repainting at the moment, but someone had taken a can of spray-paint and drawn a large and anatomically incorrect penis on the door already. _I'm mature,_ Annie told herself, suppressing the same chuckle that Dean struggled with beside her as well. The door slid cleanly open, letting out a billow of smoke. Today, Proton was wearing his important white uniform, though he'd taken the top half off and was lounging shirtless on his swivel chair, looking relaxed. "Ah. Good to see you two again. Take a seat, seat a take, whatever."

They shared a look before easing themselves down into their chairs whilst Proton stubbed out his cigarette and rummaged in a filing cabinet before pulling out Annie's file. "Okay, right- I assume you got your shit in your envelope?"

Annie pulled it from where it was secured in the back of her skirt. Being too big to put in her bra, she'd not wanted to put it with her luggage or carry it in hand, so she'd settled for that. She hadn't actually opened it yet. Proton, noticing this, snatched it out of her hand over the desk and pulled out a flickknife-cum-letter-opener (though she suspected it was used more for the former than the latter) and cleanly sliced through the thick brown paper. Several objects and numerous papers tumbled out, scattering around his desk.

"A single gold stripe for the lovely grunt," he picked up the iron-on strip of material and handed it over. "Then two card keys. One for here, with grunt-level access privileges- and one for the celadon base should you be needed there."

They were identical, and Annie must have looked lost because Dean snatched one and showed her that there was a tiny gold strip on one (Saffron) and a green strip on the other (Celadon). Thanking him, she slipped them into the quite cool slots on the back side of her gloves so that she could swipe them and be on her way.

"Ah. Here we are. Keys. Do not fucking lose these, understood?" There were three keys. One had a neatly printed address on its tag. The other two were freshly-cut and unmarked, though both different shapes. "The first is to your apartment. We didn't manage to get you one in the same block as your crew, but there was a free flat in the adjoining condo. It's nicer. Think yourself lucky."

Wow. Annie took the key and looked at it. _Her_ apartment. That she owned and paid for. That she'd live in. Her heart leapt a little at the thought before Proton snapped her back into the real world. "Now, this big fat ugly grey one is for the service entrance to HQ. Get one of the others to show you where it is. The lifts from the streets are closed until further notice." She took the awkward key thoughtfully as he moved onto his last item.

"Now- this is the important key." He said with deadly seriousness, the dirty yellow light casting hard shadows over his face. "This is the key that we will not hesitate to take away from you if you cock up. This is the key that we part with most painfully."

Raising his gaze to lock with her eyes, his next words were a whisper. "This is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven."


	11. Chapter 11

Hello. The next couple of chapters are quite short. I've been busy. Exams coming up n shit. Anyway, for those of you who actually read this (lol?), here is…

* * *

Chapter Eleven

* * *

The Kingdom of Heaven was the second-floor ladies toilet, in case you were wondering.

The showers were cold and rusty; the sinks grimy and their faucets leaky. The floor was slick with dirt, and urine, and something else that Annie didn't want to think about.

"You're serious?"

"Proton's always serious." Dean grunted, pulling on some rubber gloves. "Right. I'll start on the toilets; you can nuke the place with bleach. Rendezvous in three hours."

Annie gave him a look. "It's one room, Dean."

"Yes, but I like to imagine that I'm in some kinda spy movie." He slipped over to the centre of the room, holding a brillo pad to his ear and narrowing his eyes. "Charlie-delta-foxtrot, this is Agent Samuels- I'm in the heart of enemy territory. How should I proceed, over?"

Shaking her head and sighing, Annie reached into the cleaning cart for the bleach, but Dean wouldn't let her go. "Charlie-delta-foxtrot? Come in, Charlie-delta-foxtrot! Has your cover been breeched?"

"**Agent Samuels, this is Charlie-delta-foxtrot**." The tannoy scared them. Proton's acerbic tones sounded vaguely amused. "**Requesting that you get the fuck on with your duties, over.**"

He slumped and looked around for the CCTV camera, then giving it the finger. "Understood, Charlie-delta-shithead. Over and out."

"Dean!"

"Whaaat?" He chuckled lazily, grabbing a mop out of the cart. "Engarde!"

"We are not fencing with mops."

"You're _boooring_." Dean replied, sticking out his tongue but resigning himself back to work- not before, however, he pulled a dusty old boombox from within the cart and tuned it to Radio Eight, the popular chart show station. The obnoxious lady presenter, Fern Wool, was rattling on about how _totally orgasmically awesome _the current number one (You make my heart weep(inbell), baby)(what kind of shit was that?) was, being occasionally interrupted by her exhausted co-presenter, Carl.

They set to work, putting as little effort possible into cleaning the nasty, grimy, yucky, smelly, grotty, adjective-ridden toilets. It was tough, and not exactly what Annie had been expecting to do when she qualified as a criminal, but Dean made it bearable. By the time they were done, what seemed like a decade later, Annie was soaked through, smelled violently of fairy liquid and bleach, and bore a large smudge of black paint across her forehead (Dean had found a tin that was to be used to repaint the cubicle door), but a big smiled on her face.

"Ugh." He made a face. "I feel like an old man."

"You are an old man." Annie replied, putting away the dustpan and brush. "I think I've bleached all my arm-hair blonde."

"Raf did that once."

"Really?" She tried to imagine him blonde, but he just looked incredibly camp. "Can hardly imagine it."

"Doesn't make it any less true." They exited the room and locked the door back again. The task, Annie realised, had just been so that Proton could laugh at them. The toilets were locked anyway. They'd just wasted three hours of their lives. "Shit, shower and a shave for me."

"Lovely." She said. "But unnecessary."

* * *

Idly, Kaylee twirled spaghetti around her fork, staring at a coffee stain on the cafeteria table. She sat alone, having been debriefed and sent to lunch early. Raf had decided to go back to painting after he'd calmed down; she knew as well as anyone what amphy did to a person. Sure, it was fun, but it wore off pretty quick, and the comedown was a bitch. Not that she supposed it mattered to Raf.

Sighing, she chased some strangely extraneous chickpeas around her salad, probably lower than Raf was at the moment. Her mind lingered, as it often did after visits to the mountains, on Jimmy, on herself, on what she'd done. It did haunt her, especially when she was alone like this. It helped to have someone like Annie around, who she could worry for, concern herself with, divert her attention vicariously through, but at the same time that made moments like now all the more disparate.

She supposed it was for the best. After all, nobody was meant to know quite how unstable Kaylee was. Raf and his erratic nature covered that nicely. He'd been the only one present in that fiery palace, and he knew her well enough to realise that she funnelled her own madness out and through him. Perhaps that was why he felt inclined to act so rashly? She'd have to ask. If so, he was a better man than she thought him.

The problem was, see, that it all came to nought in the end.

"Moore?" A Rocket she vaguely knew sat down opposite her. His three stripes told her he was her superior, but he looked a bit of a whelk. Around six feet, indistinguishable features, not ugly, not pretty, a void of individuality. Would they all end up like him in ten years? The way things were going, she hoped so.

"Of what?" The joke was old to the point of tedium. He gave a cursory chuckle anyway, setting his tray down.

"Haven't seen you around recently."

"Ops, then I was on domestics up at mountain base. Miss me?"

"Actually, we haven't, but someone has." Well riddle-me-this, Kaylee thought, glancing up at him, with a questioning look, remembering that his name was Peters. "Don't give me that look, Moore. Your family is more trouble that you're worth."

Well shit me a sandshrew.

"Daniel?"

"I'll see you in briefing room twelve as soon as you're finished." Peters said curtly, having forgotten all semblance of obliqueness. "And don't bring your pet project."

"Annie?" she frowned. "Why would I bring her anyway?"

"We know how attached you get to them. This is classified stuff."

"She's probably on domestics anyway."

"Good."

The conversation stopped. Peters picked up his tray and strode off, some eating Rockets giving her curious looks in his wake. She gave them the finger and looked down at her food, suddenly not feeling like lunch at all. Why was it always Daniel? Was he really that bitter? Surely, there was an irony tucked into their lives somewhere. He'd spent his life in pursuit of goodness, of friendship, perfection, all that horse shit- and where had it got him? Well, on national television more often than Raf took a shit, yes, but were the Nightwatch really doing any good? She grimaced. Team Rocket would never die, she well knew that, but he and his righteous friends seemed to have decided that they could bring it down themselves. She rarely watched television anymore (it was much too depressing- what that sod Sam Oak bragging on like some kind of Brian Cox. He wasn't that good-looking, was he? She had quite a thing for older men, but he wasn't even remotely shaggable), and when she did it was only to make sure that her criminal exploits were being given acceptable coverage.

Feeling sick, she stood up and left her tray where it was, much to the protest of the refectory staff, and headed towards the briefing rooms in the admin department, stopping briefly on the way to light the cigarette she'd been craving since before that stupid graduation ceremony. When life gives you shit, smoke. When life fucks you over, smoke weed. And if life, in its wisdom, decides to finally piss all over you, have a bit of crack.

Not that Kaylee was really into that. She was probably psychotic enough without drugs exacerbating it. Though melting bookcases were fun sometimes, too.

Briefing room twelve was one of the larger ones, fully ventilated and high-tech, unlike some of the older rooms, which were nothing more than a clunky computer and some shoddy filing cabinets around slightly damp chairs. This meant that whatever Daniel had been and done, in was important enough to warrant serious attention from Team Rocket. She was allowed in. Five or six officers and Proton were standing around, muttering over pieces of paper or computer displays.

"Kaylee." Proton beckoned her over. "Nice of you to take your time."

"No problem." The other officers baulked at her cheek, but he took it wordlessly.

"As perhaps Peters may have told you, Daniel has been causing trouble in your absence. We got a report in a while ago- the Nightwatch have been busy little bees. They intercepted a shipment bound for Cerulean." He gave her the information. "As you can see, nothing major. But they're getting too good. They know our supply routes."

"Right." She nodded, tracing the Saffron-Cerulean underground tunnels. "How many do we still hold?"

"Only the four that curl around Route 5, and they're mostly ineffective. The stupid Northern one has a dugtrio that's basically ploughing the area."

"Ouch."

"Yeh, exactly." He flipped over to the next page of the report. "We know that Daniel is masterminding most of it, while Samar is all concerned over in the Sevii Islands with Archer. But we don't know where their base of operations is- and even if we did; they've got enough funding to make it impenetrable to our forces. I'm not starting a war."

Where was this going?

"Telephone, boss." Proton excused himself for a minute to answer the call. Kaylee rocked back, leaning against the wall with the report in her hands. The Nightwatch. Samar, Daniel, Paul, Elisa and Carway. Five of the top trainers from Kanto and Johto, joined together to enact vigilante justice on Team Rocket. She'd seen their faces plastered over the news, the papers, shop windows- they were a publicity machine. How could they not be? Mid-twenties, good-looking, powerful trainers with an honourable mission. Adults admired them. Kids wanted to be them. And stupid, sodding Daniel had to be part of it. Wasn't he tired? All that work he'd put into being champion, never achieving his dream. Maybe he was taking his rage out on Team Rocket. She smiled at the irony. If only he knew where his darling sister was now.

"Sorry about that." Proton returned conveniently at the end of her train of thought. "Another tunnel gone. By the end of the month, we'll have lost contact completely."

"What's to stop them completely cutting us off on all sides?" She asked.

"Carway can only work so fast. He's got to be careful."

"Camera careful." She realised. "Must be shit for them to have to keep up such an image. He's got to show no semblance of cruelty at all to his pokémon."

"Exactly." He agreed. "Now. I've got some scouting teams out at the moment in this area here."

He drew a wonky circle around an area of a map of Kanto, encircling Cerulean city and all its connecting routes, stopping at the Pewter side of Mt. Moon and the Rock tunnel. "Their base has to be here for the progress to be so quick. As the pidgeot flies, it's about a hundred kilometres from east to west, and half that north to south. And that's just overground. But when we find it, we need to get in. You're our only link to Daniel. You only need to get inside, say to talk to him, to catch up, whatever."

"Then what?"

"Then you kill him, my girl."

* * *

There was a bath. And soft, fluffy towels. And a full fridge. And a load of other stuff, but that's what Annie remembered. The apartment was one of many in a large block of them, but it although it was one-bedroom and rather small, it was like heaven on earth. Everything was soundproofed, so a blissful silence sat fat and cuddly over the world as soon as the front door was shut. And shit was all clean and new and shiny.

"Fuck me, Annie." Dean said when she came out in her pyjamas. "Can I move in?"

"Hell no." She grumbled light-heartedly, tossing him a beer from the fridge before sinking into one of the three armchairs that were arranged facing a television. "I'm just going to get naked and lie on the carpet all day, savouring how awesome this is."

"Bitch." He said. "And your rent is the same as mine."

"I'm just more amazing than you, obviously."

"Or you've got boobs." He smirked. "One or the other."

"You're welcome to mine, mate. They just get in the way." She pulled out a notebook and pen. "I'm going to draw out a list of rules."

"Can I guess the first one?"

"Go for it."

He set his can down on the coffee table and pretending to think carefully, stroking his week's worth of beard on his chin. "Hmm… is it: 'No smoking on pain of death, Kaylee?'"

"Yup. Followed by no dirty shoes or smelly socks. And then… number three can be: 'In fact, just don't come in at all unless you've just showered and shaved all your body hair off, and then you may just stand on the welcome mat'?"

"Sounds very you." He said, grinning. "This is a cool place though. How is the master bedroom?"

"A very nice Queen-size bed, a wardrobe and a dresser."

"Raf will be wanting to have a housewarming- or, apartmentwarming, whatever- party." Dean warned. "Which may or may not include bedwarming."

"No thanks." Annie said offhandedly, but the thought of Raf had been plaguing her. He was attractive, sure, but he was a drug-addled arsehole. She didn't want to be just another notch on his bedpost. "Is there even… time for romance?"

"If you define 'romance' as 'lots of casual sex', then, yeh."

"Aww. But surely Rockets must get together and make babies like the second generation I saw up during training?"

He shrugged. "Some do, I suppose. Most of those kids will be accidents, though."

"Harsh for them."

"They've known nothing else."

Silence descended upon them quickly. Annie thought about his words. Kids raised as criminals. Living a lie. Never doing real school, or having real friends- just others like them. It was a gated community. Surely nothing good could come of it? Team Rocket was successful because its members came from all walks of life- a Sinnohian bank manager would work alongside an ex-fisherman from Olivine, who had been trained by a co-ordinator from Unova. The kids would be robots. Jimmy would be a robot, too. Her breath caught thinking about him.

"I should get going." Dean finished his beer and stood up faster than was necessary. "Thanks for the drink. I'll see you at work tomorrow."

"See you." He waved and shut the door behind him. She was alone. It was a heady feeling, really, knowing that you were completely by yourself, able to do anything you wanted, and it puzzled Annie that she wasn't happy. The apartment was great, of course, but she herself was brooding. She shouldn't be. She'd left all that behind in the Power Plant, that day she'd met Kaylee and Raf and Jordan and Dean. Surely, it hadn't followed her?


	12. Chapter 12

Hullo everyone. I'm bringing this back from the grave because I had two more chapters done and I really enjoy writing it. The next two chapters are short, around 3k roughly each, and they're more... well, there's a small snatch of plot, but more of the wurthy imagery and crazy shit that I use this story to write.

I hope that you get an insight into the characters from the next two chappies. This one is mostly dedicated to Raf, and the next one to Kaylee and Annie. I will warn you that chapter thirteen contains semi-explicit sex, drug use, alcohol and a very bad trip.

* * *

Chapter Twelve

* * *

Morning crowned the world in a pink light, casting the sleek, glass skyscrapers of Saffron City as smouldering pillars of fire. Certainly, it was beautiful, peaceful for the few moments between when the partygoers went to sleep and the early birds woke up, with a few night workers milling around. Kaylee stood on the balcony of her apartment block, her Nidorino purring quietly next to her legs, his rough skin leaving a little red rash. It was cold- winter's gaze had spread from the north while they'd been in the mountains, and a fine layer of frost gave the city an ethereal feeling to it.

"Daniel…" She whispered into the silence, the bitter taste of his name lingering in her mouth like cheap alcohol. "You dickhead."

The world responded with a gust of cold wind that threw her hair around her face and sent a shiver down her spine. He was so fucking perfect, wasn't he? Always him. Never her. She absentmindedly stroked Nidorino's head, wondering how strong he was now. When he'd first left home at eleven with nothing but a grungy little bulbasaur at his hip, she'd thought he was some kind of god, omni-benevolent and all that shit. It was surprising how quickly stronger pokémon had replaced that whelky bulbasaur. Then she smiled, remember him getting angry. He didn't have the knack for dragon pokémon- very few did- but he was convinced that because they were the strongest pokémon and he was the strongest trainer, they had to obey him. Well, at least there was one thing, one blemish on his perfection. The two siblings were very alike, physically- the same stocky, athletic build and easy stride, dirty blonde, curly hair, deep eyes. In fact, despite the age gap, one could easily be mistaken for the other's twin. It was what was inside the book that set them apart.

Kaylee sighed. She hadn't always been like this. Anger hummed underneath her skin, whirling around next to the same anxious tremor of madness that she'd never quite shaken off. Occasionally, she could still smell the ash and cinders of that burning building around her.

"You know what, Nido?"

"Rino?" he grumbled back.

"My life sucks donkey balls."

A new voice chuckled from a few meters behind her. "Now _that_ is porn I would watch."

A small smile tugged at Kaylee's chapped lips. "Where would the world be without you, Rafael?"

"Somewhere shit." He replied. "And speaking of shit, you look it."

"You know how to talk to a girl, huh?"

"Fuck off. You know what I mean." He came up behind her, his warmth radiating from him onto her back. "Down to B-three-Eff, Kay."

She smiled at the in-joke. "You know, I just laugh whenever you mention that."

"It was one of the strangest places I've even had sex." He scratched his head. "I honestly had no idea that those crates were due for shipping."

"We ended up in Sinnoh!"

"Yeh- but that was a great week on the liner, wasn't it?"

"Keep it in your pants, Raffy, it's too early." Kaylee grumbled, checking her phone. "'Sides, I'm in no mood anyway."

"Wanna tell Uncle Raf?" His strong arms encircled her in a half-friendly embrace. It was at least nice to feel something real, something tangible, after all of the strangeness. "C'mon, Kay."

"Am I a bad person?"

Silence stretched between them, Raf's riposte stuck on his lips. After a time, he asked: "Do you want to be?"

"I don't know." She admitted. "Why do I feel like nothing ever amounts to anything?"

"Cuz… it doesn't?"

"You know what I mean."

He chortled quietly. "Well, we're criminals. In the eyes of the law, we're bad people. But I don't believe that you yourself- as in, Kaylee- are a bad person."

"I'm such a douche." Tears threatened Kaylee as the emotional ante increased. "I'm worse than you."

"I resent that."

"Shut up. I just- y'know- I did it again."

"…You're right, you are a douche." He let his chin rest over her shoulder, his smooth skin warm against the cool, exposed flesh of the crook of her neck. "Well, all I can say is that you should either let her go or try to keep her."

"It's so much effort." Kaylee complained. "But I know that I'd just find another one."

"Aristotle once said…" he paused, "Actually, I have no idea what he said, but I'll make something up if it'll make you feel better."

"No need." Recalling Nidorino, she relaxed back into his arms. "Are we going to have sex now?"

"Probably. D'you mind?"

"Nah." Kaylee looked out into the dawn. "I've got nothing on the next hour anyway."

* * *

Annie, like any self-respecting teenager, awoke the next morning cursing her alarm clock. One of the plethora of papers that the envelope had contained stated that she, as a grunt and therefore doing the longest, shittiest hours for the least pay, had to report to HQ at 06:45 sharp. Her shifts rotated along with the other Saffron-grunts, and although she was starting the early to mid-afternoon cycle, in December she'd be switching to nights. Fun times. The window in her bedroom was large, and she'd left the curtains open so that the light would perhaps dazzle the grogginess out of her.

She thought perhaps she'd shed some sort of skin overnight.

A reality like nothing she'd ever known pierced her as she stood in her nightclothes by the bathroom mirror, steamed up though it was from her shower (whilst she disliked morning showers, she felt it necessary today). Wiping the condensation away, she looked at a girl utterly disparate from Annie Cooper- one who was no longer gangly and whispish, but fuller, stronger, almost confident. Her face was flushed with the warm water, rosy cheeks filling out cheekbones that may have once been hollow. Eyes- dark, almost a roasted, friendly umber- and so excited! How rare it was to see that look. Annie didn't feel like a child any more. No, what with everything going on and her adulthood so thrust upon her, she felt positively mature. It was a new feeling, and she savoured it like a good wine before allowing it to ebb away as she blow-dried her hair and absentmindedly picked at knots that appeared in it.

Finding her apartment eerily silent, perhaps, for one so accustomed to the constant racket of the mountain facility, she padded into the kitchen and ate a quiet breakfast of Dugtri-O's. (So tasty, you can Diglett!)(She didn't understand that, was it a pun?), Turning on the battered radio and tuning it to Radio Eight, Annie listened with her teeth gritted to 'Gimme your Luv(disc)' and a drum n' bass remix of My Heart Will go On.

It seemed a normal morning- until the news came on (surprisingly, Radio Eight _did _do some news, although it was five minutes long and sandwiched between Celeb Choice Hour and Totally Killer Tune-athon).

"…_And now to my totally awesome colleague Helen for the news!_"

Fern faded out to the smoother, older voice of the newsreader Helen, much to Annie's relief. "_Good morning Kanto! In the news today, Champion Korey Feld announces that dates have been set on the Indigo League's preliminary qualifiers. Trainers should report to nearby centres to pre-register and to pick up an official programme of dates._"

At this point Annie was only listening absently, enjoying Helen's soft, even voice. "_And residents of Saffron and Cerulean Cities should like to know that the Nightwatch's Daniel Moore will be visiting their Centres and Town Halls to give a press conference on the exclusive organisation's latest endeavours in combating the villainous Team Rocket…_"

Daniel… Moore?

Just a coincidence?

* * *

Thoroughly satisfied by Raf's six and a half inches, Kaylee laid on her bed, the after-rush still coursing through her, blue bedcovers tossed aside in the heat of things now brought back up and snugly to her chin, cold as it was. She and Raf were not inclined to cuddle, at least not now, absorbed as each was in their own thoughts.

"Cig?" he offered her, but for once she shook her head, sighing to the ceiling.

"Raf, we're so stupid."

"And?"

"We're killing ourselves."

His eyebrows rose as he struggled with a tatty lighter he'd found in the bedside table. "I swear, you have the weirdest idea of pillow talk."

"Shush." She scolded him. "I… I just wonder a lot lately. About everything. About me and you and Dean and Jordoc and everyone at HQ. Sometimes Proton. But mostly Daniel. I wonder about Daniel."

He grunted. "What about Annie?"

"Why would I think about her?"

"You seemed pretty cut up about her earlier. Oh, look at your face, Kay, you can't lie to me. You'll always have your projects, but they'll never compare to him."

He was right, of course, in that way only Raf could be. Kaylee would never put right what she'd done to Jimmy by bringing an endless stream of younger, impressionable toys into her life, to mould them and shape them, to bring them to Team Rocket and hope, fervently pray, that they were appalled by it. She was looking for a shred of human decency, something she herself wanted to possess, to roughly tear it from a girl's body, to hold onto it. She wanted to be like Daniel. But she couldn't, however hard she tried- why? She asked herself every day. It had been in Annie. She'd seen it, burning bright inside her chest, even had she'd been exposed to all the evil the world had. It had persisted, that innocence, that dignity. And then Kaylee had taken it, had drank it all up in the snow, had taken it for herself like raiders pillaging a seaside town. For what? She felt the madness return every day, bit by bit, dark thought by dark thought, hurt by harder hurt. What she had from Annie wasn't enough. It was never enough.

"I just…" she whispered to somebody who wasn't quite there, forgetting Raf. "I feel like I'm losing my grip. I want to be better. Better like you. Dan?"

She twirled around to look at Raf. "Dan?"

He frowned and took her hand quietly. "No, Kaylee. It's Rafael. Shush. Come here." He pulled her across into his arms, strong and warm as they were, his tanned skin radiating more than a physical heat- a strong, low pulse of calm. Rafael was many things, but not a soothing man by any sense of the word. Now, though, cleansed of drugs and coming to terms with a new day, the man he should have been filtered through. It was tiring, he felt inside himself, this responsibility, this burden he took upon himself. Sometimes, like Kaylee, he wondered why he gave up so much for her, that she either did not or chose not to acknowledge. It frustrated him.

But of course, you've guessed he loved her. Too much, by that point, in fact. Far too much.

"Hmm. Let's get you some coffee, Kaylee." Her grip on him became a vice.

"No. I'm sorry. Raf. Don't go. I'm sorry." She nuzzled his chest affectionately, but with conservativeness that belied her shame at having lapsed again. "Your birthday is coming up."

"Hardly a thing to celebrate." He muttered, stroking her hair, stealing a glance at the digital clock. It read 06:28. "Twenty, Kaylee. Fuckin' twenty."

"You're so old now."

"I think we all are. I think it's getting silly to keep pretending we're teenagers. That we don't have to care about shit. We do. It's all too real now."

"You thought my pillow talk was depressing?"

"Oh, hush." He kissed her head. "I have a shift now. You?"

"I have to kill Daniel." Saying it like that got it off her conscience a bit. "Proton says I have to. For the Team."

"You always knew this was coming, Kay. I was only a matter of time. The Nightwatch are too influential to ignore."

She sighed. "I know. I know, so bad, Raffy. I just don't want it. I want to be back home, before Dan went on his journey, before Mum and Dad judged me, when the only thing I wanted to be was a fairy princess. Or a lawyer. Or both at the same time at one point, I dunno. Not this. Never this."

"Never us?"

Kaylee paused, considering the look of want in his eyes, recovered enough now to feel the weight of reality again. Sighing, she got out of bed and rummaged around for some clothes. "Never us, Raf. Not if I'd made my choices right. You know that."

She didn't see the stricken look on his face, but it was an old wound now, one that would, he expected, be poked and prodded until it festered into consuming self-loathing. "Okay. I know. I understand." His voice was hollow.

Kaylee pulled on a pair of tights and gazed out of the window. She thought, in the condo opposite, that maybe she could see Annie at her window. What a poor girl, Kaylee thought, to have to put up with me. To be one of a long string of adopted trinkets, destined to dissolve into the shadows of Team Rocket for a few years, to make other friends, then to end their contracts, sign their oaths of secrecy and start a life far away- maybe Pallet Town (yes, she thought absently, Pallet is absolutely lovely, especially in the spring), to bring up a couple of kids and be done with all of this. It was this destiny she wanted, this she sought after from them. But each time she grasped at a wisp of it, the fate she so desired was blown further away by the dark gust of her wants, her madness, her inherent evil. If she'd been at all religious, Kaylee would have had herself exorcised a long time ago.

"Don't know if I can do this one, Raf. I've done so many. Innocents. Blind arm of the Boss, I was. But Dan? I hate him more than anyone else, Raf. He took my parents away for himself. He stole my childhood and my dreams. But I don't think I could kill him."

_Well_, Raf thought darkly, _if push comes to shove_… I've_ no problem killing your brother._


	13. Chapter 13

This is the second of a double-post, and the one that contains the bad stuff. Please note that I know what being drunk feels like, but have never partaken in Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD or Acid) which are used in this chapter, and as such I have no practical experience of a trip on this substance. I have taken copious artistic license, therefore. Enjoy.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen

* * *

For a few days, both Annie and Kaylee were absorbed into the writhing, busy mass of black hats that was Team Rocket, each in their own world. If destiny had been kind, if the world had worked as it should, they would have never seen each other again, following Kaylee's usual pattern of loving and leaving. But alas, life is cruel, and perhaps God had finally decided to end the cycle when he had the two girls meet again in the oddest of places: the launderette two streets down from Annie's apartment. It was the first dark night of winter, and frost had settled on the rooves of houses and run amok with the water pipes in Kaylee's older condo, so her washing machine wasn't working. Annie, on the other hand, had no dryer and needed her uniform washed by tomorrow.

A strange awkwardness stretched between them, on that had never been present before. Annie offered a smile. "Hey."

Taken slightly off-balance by their meeting, Kaylee frowned and bit her lip. She wanted Annie to hate her and leave her alone. To let her take the easy road. She could go out, get irresponsibly drunk and throw a dart at another place on the map. She quite fancied a Vermillion girl next, yes- that would be good. But just then, looking at the sincerity, the honest belief that Annie held in her, those warm, childish eyes… Kaylee's breath caught in her throat. That was it. That spark, that sliver of goodness, the liquid innocence that clung in silvery beads around someone's body. With a creak, her jaw trembled and her reply stuck like a burr.

"Are you okay, Kaylee?"

Her quivering hands clenched at her sides, and then one rose, quietly, without premise, to gently touch its forefinger on Annie's flushed winter cheeks, leaving an invisible line of curious agony. They shivered as one, the younger pulling away, the older pushing forwards. So strange. How had she not taken it, snatched it all up, before? Why did it overflow now, brimming at every pore of Annie's body, radiating into the air around her?

It was so _good_.

"H…Annie." She finished lamely, tongue heavy and daft in her mouth. "Doing… laundry?"

"Drying." The girl answered happily, indicating the rotating dryer next to her. "There isn't one in my apartment."

"Ah." Kaylee looked down at her own basket. "Pipes're bust in mine. Good old Saffron engineering."

"Indeed." The silence jumped into life again between them as Kaylee started her wash. "So. Haven't seen you 'round."

"Busy is all." Kaylee replied, freezing up again. It was useless. Her plans had been foiled. Annie was too good. Too perfect. She couldn't just go get another one, not now they'd met again. She threw a glance over her shoulder at the girl, humming quietly as she checked the timer on her dryer. Kaylee never let her toys stay in her life beyond a couple of weeks, a month at most. They didn't matter. They were just fun until they broke, like all toys and games. Her fingers hammered nervously on the washing machine buttons, and, biting her lip, she rested her forehead against the cold metal, feeling an idiot. It would not suffice this time. Kaylee grimaced. She'd have to make an effort. How alien that word sounded in her mind! Effort. Meaning. Happiness. Just words. Strange words at that. They rang bitter on Kaylee's lazy tongue.

"I'm becoming too fucking sentimental." She muttered under her breath, feeling a rising wave of nauseous madness crash over her, strong and potent, catching her off guard and sending her knees weak. She would not cry. She would not call out to Dan. Dan isn't here, she reminded herself, small, quiet words against the raging sea. Dan is gone. They're all gone.

"Do you have a dollar spare?"

And that voice! Kaylee turned, but shied away, afraid that Annie might see the glimmer of insanity in her eyes. She shook her head, teeth gritted and mouth twisted with the pressure. No. Kaylee had nothing to spare, since she had nothing for herself to begin with.

"Shame. I suppose I'll have to deal with slightly damp uniform." A touch on her shoulder was all that it was. A light, friendly thing, barely a brush. Warmth flooded into her, and she turned around again to see Jimmy in front of her, smiling his goofy smile. Her little boy. Her stolen brother. A blink later she was back in reality, with Annie staring at her with concern between her furrowed brows. Not this again. Kaylee hated having to distinguish reality from fantasy. "Fuck…" she drew in a breath through pursed lips to steady herself. Words, well-rehearsed and much needed, came tumbling out of her mouth like skittles falling at a bowling alley. "We're going out. Now."

"…What, right now?"

"Yeh. C'mon." Kaylee grabbed Annie's hand and roughly pulled her out of the launderette.

"But- Kaylee, my laundry!" She protested to the deaf ears of a girl who'd made her mind up. Kaylee expertly navigated the winding alleys of Saffron in their dark yellow gloom, striding from streetlight to streetlight. She pulled her Team Rocket cap out of her pocket and jammed it on her head as they alighted at a grubby off-license. Kaylee entered with a confident, assured gait and made straight for the spirits section. Annie looked around nervously; she'd never been in a shop like this before. She was underage, too, and the clerk obviously picked up on her nervousness and gave her an unsettling stare.

"Just this." Kaylee said gruffly, setting two bottles of cheap pecha run down on the counter. The clerk looked about to refuse her, but then his eyes caught on the insignia sewn into her cap and froze.

"Yes, Miss." He said, ashen-faced, and took the security chips off the alcohol. "Forty dollars."

Kaylee gave him thirty and left. Annie scuttled behind her, looking over her shoulder to check the clerk; he wasn't protesting. In fact, he looked happy to have her gone. Annie hadn't realised that Team Rocket held so much power.

Kaylee opened her phone and texted something before opening one of the bottles of rum and taking a long swig before offering it to Annie.

"Kaylee, what are we doing?"

"Getting fucked." She answered, closing her phone and beginning to walk again, thin time into the even darker, seedier parts of Saffron's dirty underbelly.

"Why?"

Kaylee stopped in her tracks, looking back in a sort of cold, distant horror. How could Annie not know why? How could she still be swimming above the murk that was life, the useless sludge in which resides the lowest of the low, the criminals and the wastrels, the knaves and the whores? Was Annie so naïve as to be blind to the way that Kaylee treated her? Kaylee wanted to destroy her, to grasp at her light, to covet and hide in the darkness with the fading glimmer of hope behind her eyes… why could Annie not see that?

"Because we can." She answered, words tumbling from her hollow chest to the thick air and smog around them. "Because that's all there is."

"That's not true." Annie frowned, stepping closer, her light almost blinding. "We can go see a movie, or out for a meal, or something."

Kaylee grabbed her shoulder, anger and tears swelling up inside her. "That all… it's nothing. It kills your mind. There's… there's only being absent that is true. How can I be myself? I'm _fucked_. So _monumentally_ fucked, Annie."

She thrust the rum into her hands; the two of them almost close enough to touch noses. Annie could smell the rum on Kaylee's breath, the cold puffs of water vapour from her nostrils, her wide, watering eyes. She couldn't put her finger on what was wrong, but she'd agreed to stay with Kaylee when they were in the mountains, so she would. She took a sip of the burning rum and tried to smile. Kaylee's body, which had been tense to exploding, deflated in a dramatic way, her grip loosening. Annie realised that she was walking a fine line of appeasement.

"Let's go."

They were absorbed by the gloom and thick, cloying air of the machinery district, where the hum and thrum of the factories never stopped. Annie mirrored Kaylee's body language carefully, taking some rum when Kaylee did, moving closer or further away depending on Kaylee's usual zigzagging stride. They came about ten minutes later to a shanty town. Annie looked around, appalled at the ramshackle corrugated iron huts, the ragged cloth lean-tos and the rough wooden shacks. Dirty men, women and children shuffled around; it may have been late evening, but they were still awake, many starting night shifts in the factories or indulging in illegal practices. It was the latter that Kaylee was here for, naturally.

They met a short, long-fingered man who lived in a roughly circular enclosure of wood, iron and plastic sheeting. Annie didn't catch his name; Kaylee appeared to know him well enough.

"S'good ta thee ya, mith." He lisped, opening a thick cast-iron safe and taking out a small pouch. "S'been bad while you've awaint."

"I'm sure." Kaylee said, receiving the pouch and offering him a thick wodge of notes. "Sorry about the short notice."

"S'fine." He said. "I know how difficult 'tis ta get dethent thit, what with you lot owning it all."

"Watch your mouth." She snapped, and he recoiled against the wall. "There's a single reason you're still around."

"Yeth mith, of courth, mith." He bowed low and afraid. Kaylee grabbed Annie's hand and pulled her out of the hovel. They left the shantytown quickly, leaving Annie to wonder what all that had been about. Luckily, Kaylee was in a garrulous mood, probably from the rum, and chatted as they walked back towards the Rocket condominiums.

"See, Team Rocket owns most of the drug trade in Saffron," She explained, "Cuz pokémon are profitable, but drugs are easy. But, to make profit, our drugs are shite. Dickshite, really- I worked for four months doing that shit, scientist bods putting all sorts of crazy stuff into it… addictive stuff, mind-altering stuff. Guy I knew did too much Rocket E, ended up totally messed up. Became like a robot. You could give him orders and he'd do them. Couldn't think for himself, like he was plugged into a hive mind or something."

She shivered at the thought and had some more rum. "We're going back to yours."

"We are?"

"Yeh." Kaylee said nonchalantly. She didn't want to be in her own apartment tonight. "We can get our shit from the launderette on the way- look, here."

The collected their washing or drying and went back to Annie's flat. The whole place smelled of newness, of potential, and Kaylee found that she liked it much more than her own, worn flat, though her hands kept twitching, wondering what it would feel like to desecrate the place. Annie's hands went for the light switch, but Kaylee stopped her.

"No. This." She went into the utility cupboard and prized open the lighting box, flipping a couple of small switches. The blue and green emergency lighting came on, low and threatening- Kaylee loved it. If there was an emergency or an attack on HQ, this lighting came on in all Rocket apartments and households, but Kaylee and Raf had found out how to trick the system and enjoyed the strange, ultraviolet, luminous atmosphere that it created.

"Wow." Annie said, almost obscured, her face and hands glowing white but her black-clad body covered by darkness. "This is creepy."

"If you think it's trippy now, just wait." Kaylee pulled out a small, flat pill from the pouch and held it up to the blue light. "Tab of acid. Have fun."

"Wait." Annie said, vaguely remembering what happened last time she'd partaken in any illicit substances. Quite suddenly, she felt flushed and nervous, and took a step back, bumping into the sofa. "Kaylee, I don't think…"

"That's right. Don't think." Kaylee stepped closer, her eyes flashing an eerie green. "Just do. Give it to me. It's _mine_."

"What?" Annie asked, looking down at herself. "I don't have anything of yours, Kaylee."

Kaylee lunged, faster, blurred by the strange lights, impossibly fast considering how much she'd drunk. Annie wasn't fast enough and found herself pinned to the sofa, Kaylee bearing down on her, taut and powerful.

"Stop!" She squeaked. "Kaylee, we're not… it was just once!"

"It should have been." She murmured, running her fingers across Annie's cheek, pushing the small, smooth tablet into her mouth. She had no choice but to swallow it, and felt it slide down her throat like the fuse of a bomb. "Don't worry, honey, I'll get it this time."

"Get wha-" Annie started to say, but was cut off by Kaylee's mouth against hers, harsh, taking, forceful. She pressed herself tightly against Annie's body, jerking until there was no way out. The sofa moved on the carpeted floor and in a flurry, and they toppled down onto the soft, downy carpet with a dull thud. Annie's head spun with the alcohol and she felt herself go hot and tingly. Above her, Kaylee grasped and gripped, her tongue making deep, frenzied rakes into Annie's mouth, her body tense.

Annie wanted to get out. She wanted to leave, to crawl into bed and fall asleep on clean linens, but what Kaylee wanted, Kaylee got. Annie hadn't had a boyfriend before, and other than Kaylee, Hugh was the only person she'd ever kissed. It was a strange feeling, to be acted upon as though she were a doll. It wasn't right. She was a doormat again, a whispish ghost of a girl to be trampled over like a unwanted bellsprout growing up between the cracks of a busy pavement.

She wasn't that any more! Hadn't she stood in front of the mirror and promised herself that she was older, different, new? The thrumming heat that was pooling in her stomach suddenly surged like an angry grimer around her body, filling her with a wild fervour, a consuming… she supposed it must be lust; lust for everything, lust to prove herself, lust to exact some sort of control over Kaylee, to establish herself, to _live_.

With a great push, she grabbed Kaylee's arms and rolled her over, landing on top, straddling Kaylee's waist. Surprised with herself, Annie paused for a moment, breathing heavily. Kaylee looked up at her, confused, a strange glazed look in her eyes, as though she wasn't quite present.

"No!" She said. "_I_ take it! It's _mine_!"

"I'm not _yours_." Annie growled, pushing her back down onto the floor. "I'm my own. I own myself. What the _hell _are you tripping on?"

Kaylee screeched and squirmed under her grip, clutching onto Annie's hair, trying to pull them back over. Annie launched in for a kiss to silence the guttural snarling, and the two clashed in some sort of battle. Kaylee tore at Annie's clothes, roughly snatching her shirt off, not even taking her time, just tearing. She left red lines of pain where her nails had dug into Annie's flesh. They writhed and wrestled on the floor in some sort of primal, feral war, clutching, clenching, reaching out for an intangible supremacy. Annie was fighting for her pride, Kaylee for other reasons entirely. Annie prized her skirt off; marking long, thin grazes along Kaylee's hips. They danced like shadowy creatures under the emergency lights, one pitted against the other. It wasn't like the dopey, ethereal night in the snow; they were angry, visceral, lustful beasts. Annie ran her hands along Kaylee's thick, toned thighs in a brief moment of slowness before she felt a deep pain in her collarbone; Kaylee was trying to bite her. She pushed her down, but not before a trickle of blood had run from a deep tooth-shaped puncture of her flesh. It was a sharp ache, but the sight of blood just made Annie angrier. She reared up and plunged deep into Kaylee's body with no ceremony, no warning, no practice. Kaylee screamed and froze mid-buck, for a brief second placated from her carnal rampage. Annie blinked, looking at Kaylee's wide-eyed face, free from her heavy frown, or the nonchalant quirk of her eyebrows, on anything at all. Just… blank. Like a canvas. Like Annie's homeland. Like Annie.

Furious at the reflection of herself, she probed deeper, in and then out, erratic, sloppy, fast, slow, it didn't matter, it just _was_. She slowly slipped into a sort of connected yet absent state looking into Kaylee's frenzied eyes, flitting anywhere but the place she most wanted them to look, breath coming faster, deeper, thrashing bodies and muscles straining, tendons stretched to snapping point, until-

"Aghhh!" Kaylee screamed, squirming, tightening, lashing out with reckless abandon. Annie was tossed to the side, her hand nearly breaking at the odd angle. She thumped against the side of the sofa and lay there, breathing, watching Kaylee writhe like a vulnerable ledyba on its back, unable to flip itself over. Twenty seconds later, she fell limp and still, thin groans wafting from her throat into the heavy air. Annie groped around in the dark for the sofa and pulled herself up, a burning victory consuming her. As she stood, she felt a rush to her head and had to lean on the sofa to support herself. Kaylee sat up and grinned goofily, crawling over, naked body glistening under the low lights, grey eyes tiny pricks of mirth.

"Silly girl," she crooned as Annie's eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed back onto the floor. "You can't _have_ me. I'm nothing to _have_ in the first place."

She stroked Annie's hair softly, dopily, her features slack from pleasure. "Twenty minutes is about the kick-in time, Annie. Can you feel it? Can you feel the world… dropping away? Like a shed skin?"

The lights were dancing now, stretching, whorls of colour, whirlpools, sucking Annie towards them. She panicked and scrambled away, but found heavy chains of darkness covering her. Kaylee loomed atop her, every bit the Rocket she was inside, festering, dead, hollow, haunted, teeth jagged and broken, eyes yellow with death and pink with want. Her uniform came from the stroking tendrils of the darkness and clothed her softly as though she belonged there; black shirt, black skirt, black cap. The letter R leered at her, dripping and hungry, red like the blood trickling onto the floor.

"The _audacity_." Kaylee said, her voice like a disappointed schoolteacher. "You_ dare_ to touch me? Sinner… _dirty_ sinner!"

"I… I didn't..." Annie begged, her words evaporating even as she said them. "I'm sorry."

"You will be." Kaylee breathed. "You've got hours until that tab wears off. I'm going to _own_ you. I'm going to _fuck _you. Fuck you until there's _none_ of it left, you hear me! It isn't _yours_, it's _his!_ You've taken it!"

Senseless.


End file.
